The Marshall Project, a soft-on-crime advocacy organization masquerading as a journalism organization, has this article claiming that Dylann Roof is an anomaly in that he is a white person who will likely face the death penalty for the murder of black people, dragging out the old race-of-victim bias claim again.
They quote raw numbers on race and executions from another masquerading organization, the Death Penalty Information Center. But raw numbers mean nothing because of the apples-and-oranges problem. Patterns of offending are not uniform across races, and a comparison of two groups that differ in ways other than the variable of interest proves absolutely zilch. That is lesson one of day one of an elementary social science class, but if your purpose is to inflame rather than inform, you can just skip right over that.
Then there is this gem:
They quote raw numbers on race and executions from another masquerading organization, the Death Penalty Information Center. But raw numbers mean nothing because of the apples-and-oranges problem. Patterns of offending are not uniform across races, and a comparison of two groups that differ in ways other than the variable of interest proves absolutely zilch. That is lesson one of day one of an elementary social science class, but if your purpose is to inflame rather than inform, you can just skip right over that.
Then there is this gem:
In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kent Scheidegger of the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation (and probably the most-quoted supporter of the death penalty throughout national media) made the point that all murders of black victims, regardless of the race of the perpetrator, tend to be in places with more black residents, where "support for the death penalty is lower" and communities elect prosecutors who seek the punishment less often.The Marshall Project did not call me to ask if there are any studies to back up my point. They either didn't read my article in OSJCL or didn't understand it. In both the University of Maryland study and in the study by the New Jersey Special Master, apparent statewide race-of-victim effects diminished markedly when a variable for jurisdiction was added to the model, dropping below statistical significance in the New Jersey study and one of the models in the Maryland study.
There are no studies to back up Scheidegger's point...
Journalists would need to gather facts before they make statements like the "no studies" one, but crusaders are exempt.
The anomaly of Dylann Roof is in the exceptionally heinous crime he committed, and that is what we should be focusing on. The death penalty should be for the 1 or 2 percent of homicides that stand out as the very worst. Let the racial numbers fall where they may. This case clearly qualifies.
The victims' families have not yet taken a public stand, but their earlier statements indicate they might oppose it. If they do, then Roof might escape the death penalty. That would be an anomaly, but it would be caused by the families' opposition and not by prejudice.
If those guys at the Marshall Project want to see for-real race of the victim bias, check out the probation given to home-invasion armed robber Gregory Wallace by Judge Olu Stevens.