For Whom the Bell Tolls : Black Opinion on the Death Penalty

Outside of noting the large gap in death penalty support between whites and blacks, very few studies have looked to explanations for African American opinion on the issue. Whites are far more likely than African Americans to support the death penalty and race is often found to be the strongest predictor of death penalty support (Durham, Elrod, and Kinkade 1996; Young 1992). This paper moves beyond explaining the role of race in white support of the death penalty to ask whether standard death penalty opinion models are successful in predicting variation in black opinion or, whether other determinants are needed in studying black opinion. Black opposition to the death penalty may be explained largely by a sense of shared interest instead of a reflection of individual interests or values. The issue is not explicitly racial and very limited numbers of African Americans (or citizens in general) are affected by capital punishment. Changes in the policy may not influence the status of blacks as a whole. But, those who are impacted by capital punishment are disproportionally black and there is a well known bias in the criminal justice system regarding race and death penalty convictions. The characteristics of capital punishment in the U.S. make it ripe for an exploration of the role of group interest in shaping black opinion