Louisiana 16th JDC Study on Race, Homicides, and Death-Eligible Prosecutions, 1976-2011
5 Pages Posted: 25 Jul 2013 Last revised: 12 Aug 2013
Date Written: August 5, 2013
Abstract
This study examines the racial characteristics of homicides occurring in Louisiana's 16th Judicial District Court, comprising Iberia, St Martin, and St Mary parishes along Bayou Teche just west of the Atchafalaya Basin, during the 36 years from 1976 through 2011, and then compares them to the racial characteristics of death-eligible (first degree at some stage) murder cases prosecuted there during the same period. Are these prosecutions a statistically random, race-neutral subset of the homicides that occurred? What we find is that there is a negligible (less than one-in-a-million) chance of obtaining these data if the hypothesis – that prosecuted cases are a racially random sample drawn from the homicide group – were true.
The report counts and calculations for this article can be found here: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2298022
Keywords: death penalty, death eligible, capital murder, first-degree murder, Louisiana, race, homicides, St Mary parish, St Martin parish, Iberia parish, prosecutions, race-neutral
JEL Classification: C12, J71, K14
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation