Opinion ID: 515812
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 21

Heading: discriminatory impact of the death penalty on the basis

Text: OF THE RACE OF THE VICTIM 324 Petitioner challenges the Magistrate's Report and alleges that the Eleventh Circuit decisions in McCleskey v. Kemp, 753 F.2d 877 (11th Cir.1985) and Griffin v. Wainwright, 760 F.2d 1505 (11th Cir.1985) compel this Court to grant his request for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the death penalty in Florida is being applied in a racially discriminatory manner. Specifically, Petitioner alleges that certain statistical studies show disparate application of the death penalty in Florida. 325 Recently, the Eleventh Circuit, in Griffin v. Wainwright, recognized the fact that a modification to its rule in Spinkellink v. Wainwright, 578 F.2d 582 (11th Cir.1978) had occurrd in Smith v. Balkom [Balkcom], 671 F.2d 858 (5th Cir.1982) and McCleskey v. Kemp, supra. In part, this change arose out of the court's decision that Spinkellink cannot be read to foreclose automatically all Eighth Amendment challenges to capital sentencing conducted under a facially constitutional statute. McCleskey, 753 F.2d at 891. Instead of rejecting McCleskey's Eighth Amendment argument out of hand, the Eleventh Circuit undertook a detailed analysis to determine the impact that a statistical study has on a court's decision regarding the imposition of the death penalty on the basis of race of the victim. Our discussion of Petitioner's instant claim necessarily follows the comprehensive outline set forth by the McCleskey court. 1. Statistical Study 326 The McCleskey court considered a quantitative analysis regarding the imposition of the death penalty. See Baldus, Pulaski, Woodworth & Kyle, Identifying Comparatively Excessive Sentences of Death: A Quantitative Approach, 33 Stan.L.Rev. 1 (1980) (hereinafter referred to as the Baldus study). The authors of the Baldus study conducted several statistical tests on data concerning the imposition of sentences in homicide cases to determine the level of disparities attributable to race in the imposition of the death sentence. The McCleskey court reviewed the different methods of statistical study as well as the number of death penalties meted out in Georgia and found that Baldus conceded that it was difficult to draw any inference concerning the overall race effect in these cases ... [and that] there was only a possibility that a racial factor existed in McCleskey's case. McCleskey, 753 F.2d at 887. 327 2. Evidentiary value that statistical studies have in establishing ultimate facts which control a constitutional decision 328 The McCleskey court recognized the usefulness of statistical studies as they impact upon the judicial decision-making process. However, statistical studies have inherent limitations in aiding a court to explain the specific intent of a specific behavioral situation. Id. at 888. Historically, the 'Brandeis Brief' is a well-known technique for asking the court to take judicial notice of social facts. It does not solve the problem of how to bring scientific materials to the attention of the court.... Brandeis did not agree that the data were valid, only that they existed.... Id. Thus, in assessing McCleskey's claim, the court found that the main obstacle lay in determining the degree of deference the court should give to statistical studies in light of the standard of proof that petitioner needed to show in order to prevail on his claim. While recognizing that such studies might tend to show disparate impact on the basis of race, the court reinforced the general rule that evidence of disparate impact must be so strong that the only permissible inference is one of intentional discrimination against the petitioner. See Adams v. Wainwright, 709 F.2d 1443, 1449-50 (11th Cir.1983); Smith v. Balkom, 671 F.2d 858, 859 (5th Cir.1982). Where intent and motivation must be proved, the statistics have even less utility. However, ... statistics, under certain limited circumstances might prove intent.... Id. at 889. 329 3. The Constitutional standard for assessing Petitioner's Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment claims 330 Petitioner avers that the Florida death penalty is imposed in a discriminatory fashion. Specifically, he alleges that the discrimination lies in cases where courts have applied the penalty disproportionately against impoverished black males convicted of killing white individuals. Petitioner alleges that this practice violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. 331 A successful Eighth Amendment challenge requires that the race factor was operating in such a pervasive manner that it could fairly be said that the system was irrational, arbitrary and capricious. Id. at 891. Implicit in a Fourteenth Amendment claim is the prohibition that a state may not attach the 'aggravating' label as an element in capital sentencing to factors that are constitutionally impermissible or totally irrelevant to the sentencing process such as race. Due process would prevent a state from explicitly making the murder of a white victim an aggravating circumstance in capital sentencing. Id. at 891. Where, as in the instant case, the statute is facially neutral, the petitioner must set forth allegations supported by proof that the State of Florida (through its prosecutors, jurors or judges) has implicitly attached the aggravating label to race. Id. As in the Equal Protection context, Petitioner must show that race was a motivating factor in the death penalty decision. See Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., [429 U.S. 252] 50 L.Ed.2d 450 [97 S.Ct. 555] (1977) (race as discriminatory factor in housing context). In a death penalty discrimination allegation such as this, race as a motivating factor is proved by the same evidence necessary for a valid Eighth Amendment claim: intent, purpose and motive to discriminate racially must be shown. See McCleskey, 753 F.2d at 892; Village of Arlington Heights, 429 U.S. at 264-66 [97 S.Ct. at 563]. 332 The McCleskey Court reviewed the Supreme Court decisions in Furman v. Georgia, [408 U.S. 238] 33 L.Ed.2d 346 [92 S.Ct. 2726] (1972) and Gregg v. Georgia, [428 U.S. 153] 49 L.Ed.2d 859 [96 S.Ct. 2909] (1976) in determining the constitutional standard to be applied in assessing death penalty discrimination claims. The Eleventh Circuit read Furman to be an instance where the Supreme Court struck down the Georgia death penalty statute on Eighth Amendment grounds because the system operated arbitrarily and capriciously and not in a rational way by failing to distinguish adequately the few cases in which death was imposed from the many in which it was not. Id. [428 U.S. at 200, 49 L.Ed.2d] at 890 [96 S.Ct. at 2938]. Later, the Supreme Court approved the improved facially neutral Georgia death statute in Gregg v. Georgia. In accompanying opinions to Gregg, the Supreme Court approved the constitutionality of the death penalty statute in Florida. See Proffitt v. Florida, [428 U.S. 242] 49 L.Ed.2d 913 [96 S.Ct. 2960] (1976). Thus, there arose a new method of examining the judicial practice of imposing the death penalty. After Gregg, racial discrimination in the application of a death penalty statute may only be shown when the petitioner alleges intent and motive. With these requisite elements in mind, proof of disparate impact (via statistical surveys) alone is insufficient to invalidate a capital sentencing system. The disparate impact must be so great that it compels a conclusion that the system is unprincipled, arbitrary, irrational and capricious such that purposeful discrimination (i.e., race intentionally used as a factor in sentencing) can be presumed to permeate the system. McCleskey, 753 F.2d at 892. 333 The Eleventh Circuit casts serious doubt over the question whether statistical studies alone are ever conclusive enough to show evidence of requisite intent or motive in an Eighth or Fourteenth Amendment claim. Here, the court found that generalized studies might never be sufficient to show specific intent. Rather, these studies have little hope of excluding every possible factor that might make a difference between crimes and defendant, exclusive of race. Id. at 893-94. The subjective factors that cannot be captured by generalized statistical studies include problems arising from the discretion with which a sentence is invested, not only will no two defendants be seen identical by the sentencers, but no two sentencers will see a single case precisely the same. Id. at 894. 334 The McCleskey court found the Baldus study an insufficient method of proof to overcome the presumption that the statute was operating in a constitutional manner. In part, the statistics set forth a relationship between the race of the perpetrator and the race of the victim. However, that relationship was not found to rise to a level which could be called determinative in any specific case. The Eleventh Circuit's rejection of the Baldus study is highly relevant to this Court's assessment of the degree of disparity shown in the Gross and Mauro study set forth by Petitioner in the case sub judice. In its analysis of the methodology utilized by Baldus, the McCleskey court noted that the Supreme Court rejected a study of lesser quality in method--the Gross and Mauro study concerning, in part, the death penalty in Florida. The Eleventh Circuit's analysis of the Supreme Court's decision in Sullivan v. Wainwright, [464 U.S. 109] 78 L.Ed.2d 210 [104 S.Ct. 450] (1983), found the Gross and Mauro study insufficient as a basis for a claim of racial discrimination in the application of the Florida death penalty statute. McCleskey, supra at 897. The McCleskey court finished its discussion of the Baldus study by finding its methodology insufficient to set forth an inference of intent that would rise to an Eighth or Fourteenth Amendment claim based on racial discrimination. Based on the Eleventh Circuit's discussion and rejection of the methodology employed in Baldus and its opinion that the Gross and Mauro study was inferior to the Baldus study, Petitioner has set forth insufficient facts to allege the requisite intent, motive or purpose necessary to justify an evidentiary hearing on its racial discrimination claim. This conclusion is fully supported by the Supreme Court's decision in Sullivan v. Wainwright.