A Test of Racial Bias in Capital Sentencing
We propose a test of bias based upon patterns of judicial errors. We model the trial court as minimizing a weighted sum of type I and II errors. We define racial bias a situation where the weight depends on defendant/victim race. If the court is unbiased, the error rate should be independent of the combination defendant/victim race. We test this prediction using an original dataset on all capital appeals in 1973-1995. We find that in the first and last stage of appeal the probability of error is 3 and 9 percentage points higher for minority defendants who killed white (vs. minority) victims.
-
-
Copy CitationAlberto F. Alesina and Eliana La Ferrara, "A Test of Racial Bias in Capital Sentencing," NBER Working Paper 16981 (2011), https://doi.org/10.3386/w16981.
-
Published Versions
Alesina, Alberto, and Eliana La Ferrara. 2014. "A Test of Racial Bias in Capital Sentencing." American Economic Review, 104(11): 3397-3433. citation courtesy of 
Related
Topics
Programs
More from the NBER
In addition to working papers, the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals — the NBER Reporter, the NBER Digest, the Bulletin on Health, and the Bulletin on Entrepreneurship — as well as online conference reports, video lectures, and interviews.
