REAL WORLD TAKEAWAYS

• Specific sets of data on the race of defendants receiving the death penalty can be interpreted to draw opposite conclusions regarding the prevalence of racial bias in sentencing.
• Many people believe that in murder trials, defendants of some races are more likely to receive the death penalty than are defendants of other races.
• According to data from North Carolina and Louisiana, the race of the victim has the greatest impact on how likely the defendant is to receive the death penalty. In North Carolina murder trials from 1980-2007, the defendant was 5x as likely to receive the death penalty when the victim was white than when the victim was Black. In Louisiana, the defendant was 1.6x as likely.

MATH OBJECTIVES

• Interpret two-way frequency tables summarizing categorical data
• Interpret relative frequencies - including joint and conditional frequencies – in the context of the data