The case that I have been referring to is the case of McCleskey v Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987). This case has held high significance in the legal and social communities. The reason it was so significant was because it was the first case that the plaintiff provided a scientific study to back up their claims that racial discrimination is prevalent in the death sentencing process. It was also significant because it exposed the Supreme Court’s failure to take action against this issue. Fifteen years previously the Supreme Court reviewed the case of Furman v Georgia, 480 U.S. 238 (1972) that highlighted a similar issue. The case resulted in different opinions among the majority of the justices and no clear remedy on how to fix the issue at hand. The McCleskey v Kemp case is the …show more content…
He was later found guilty of murder and was sentenced to death by a jury. When appealing to the United States Supreme Court, McCleskey and his legal representatives provided a study that was conducted by Professors David C. Baldus, Charles Pulaski, and George Woodworth. Their study would be famously known as the Baldus Study. McCleskey and his advocates argued that the study that they provided proved that there is a racial disparity in the death sentencing process. They claimed that every party involved in the sentencing process was corrupted with racism. From the prosecutor who wanted the death penalty and the jury who sentenced him to death to the State of Georgia who allowed racism to be involved in the process. They also argued that Georgia administered the death sentencing process in a racially biased manner. The Baldus study was a combination of two empirical studies. Combined, the studies reviewed over 2,000 cases in the state of Georgia during the 1970’s. Of the cases that were reviewed, all of them involved the death penalty. The study’s main focus was to evaluate the influence of racial