Opinion ID: 2465246
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Death Penalty Arbitrarily Applied

Text: Bussell asserts that the death penalty in Kentucky operates in an arbitrary, discriminatory and freakish manner as to blacks or African Americans who kill whites and females and therefore is unconstitutional as applied. He contends that the arbitrariness and discrimination found in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972), still exists in Kentucky notwithstanding sixteen years of guided direction. In his reply brief, Bussell introduces for the first time a study mandated by the 1992 General Assembly which collected and analyzed cases of all persons indicted, convicted and sentenced for murder from 1976 through 1991. He claims that the results of this study show that capital charges were most likely sought against blacks who killed whites, that blacks who killed whites also had the highest percentage of cases involving a death penalty, that the circumstance of a black defendant and white victim was one of the top three factors in determining who is most likely to be charged with a capital crime, and that blacks who kill whites are more likely to receive a death sentence. The United States Supreme Court in McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279, 107 S.Ct. 1756, 95 L.Ed.2d 262 (1987), a case in which the defendant was black and the victim white, rejected a similar type of challenge to the application of the death penalty statute in Georgia. Sanders v. Commonwealth, Ky., 801 S.W.2d 665 (1990), held that the argument that the death penalty in Kentucky operates in an arbitrary, discriminatory and freakish manner has been repeatedly presented, considered and dismissed. The introduction of a 1992 study by means of an appendix to the reply brief obviously gives the Attorney General no opportunity to respond in any fashion. The study itself does not give an answer because it indicates it is difficult, if not impossible, to control any perceived racial bias through judicial review. Certainly this Court must do everything possible to avoid any kind of actual or perceived institutional racism that would contribute to Bussell's death sentence or to anyone else's death sentence. In this case, there is no logical connection between the crime, the imposition of the death penalty and racial bias.