McCleskey v Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987)

Abstract & Commentary

"In the 1987 case McCleskey v. Kemp, the famed Baldus study revealed facts that unequivocally proved the following:

1. Defendants charged with killing white victimes in Georgia are 4.3 times as likely to be sentence to death as defendants charged with killing blacks
2. Six of every eleven defendants convicted of killing a white person would not have received the death sentence if their victim had been black
3. Cases involving black defendeants and white victims are more likely to result in a death sentence than cases featuring any other racial combination of defendant and victim.