Which case rejected the claim that racial differences in the imposition of the death penalty violated the equal protection guarantee of the 14th Amendment and amounted to cruel and unusual punishment?

Which case rejected the claim that racial differences in the imposition of the death penalty violated the equal protection guarantee of the 14th Amendment and amounted to cruel and unusual punishment?

• A. McCleskey v. Kemp
• B. Doe v. Bolton
• C. Bowers v. Hardwick
• D. Roe v. Wade

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is how to challenge racial bias in how the death penalty is applied under the 14th Amendment and the Eighth Amendment. In McCleskey v. Kemp, the Supreme Court held that evidence of nationwide or systemic racial disparities in capital sentencing—such as a study showing that defendants who killed white victims were more often sentenced to death—does not by itself violate those constitutional protections in an individual case. The key point is that a defendant must show that his own sentence resulted from discrimination in the decision-making process specifically affecting him, not just that race appears to correlate with death sentences in general. Because McCleskey could not prove that the prosecutors, judges, or juries involved acted with racial bias in his particular trial, the Court found no constitutional violation based on the statistics alone. This means statistical disparities in capital punishment don’t automatically invalidate a sentence; the burden remains on showing purposeful discrimination in the individual case. The other cases mentioned tackle unrelated topics (abortion rights and sodomy laws) and do not address these death-penalty equal-protection questions.

The main idea here is how to challenge racial bias in how the death penalty is applied under the 14th Amendment and the Eighth Amendment. In McCleskey v. Kemp, the Supreme Court held that evidence of nationwide or systemic racial disparities in capital sentencing—such as a study showing that defendants who killed white victims were more often sentenced to death—does not by itself violate those constitutional protections in an individual case. The key point is that a defendant must show that his own sentence resulted from discrimination in the decision-making process specifically affecting him, not just that race appears to correlate with death sentences in general. Because McCleskey could not prove that the prosecutors, judges, or juries involved acted with racial bias in his particular trial, the Court found no constitutional violation based on the statistics alone. This means statistical disparities in capital punishment don’t automatically invalidate a sentence; the burden remains on showing purposeful discrimination in the individual case. The other cases mentioned tackle unrelated topics (abortion rights and sodomy laws) and do not address these death-penalty equal-protection questions.