Execution likelier for blacker US murderers-study

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Execution_likelier_for_blacker_US_murderers_study.html?siteSect=143&sid=6702731&cKey=1147217875000

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The more "black looking" an African-American man charged with murdering a white victim, the more likely he is to be sentenced to death, a Stanford University researcher said on Tuesday.

Using scores given by white and Asian-American Stanford undergraduates to rate facial features of 44 black men tried for murder in Philadelphia over 20 years, researchers found that 57.5 percent rated to have "stereotypically" black features such as dark skin were sentenced to death.

By contrast, 24.4 percent of black men in similar murder cases and rated by the students as less stereotypically black were sentenced to death, said Jennifer Eberhardt, a Stanford psychologist involved in the research.

Despite the use of ratings from only white and Asian-American students, the findings suggest jurors use stereotypes of black features as a proxy for criminality and punish murder defendants with those features more severely, Eberhardt said.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Also the more likely that he will be prescribed mind altering

medications.... there are better, safer ways to approach people who may or may not have psychological issues that seemingly require drugs to alter/alleviate.

www.hriptc.org

www.orthomed.org

[Kutjara]

2. Another piece of evidence in the mountain already collected...

...about America's long term ethnic cleansing of African-Americans. It's a result that's unsurprising, but all the more disturbing for that.

[ComerPerro]

3. I don't know if there were enough people studied for this to be serious

Such a small sample (and that's a good thing, BTW) and such seemingly inconclusive results...

[ulysses]

4. glad someone did the study.

Bookmarked.