MSU study: Military death sentences more likely for racial minorities

Brandon Howell | brhowell@mlive.com

02/20/2012 7:34 AM

EAST LANSING -- Military criminals who are minorities are more likely to be sentenced to death, according to a study by a Michigan State University law professor.

Catherine Grosso, associate professor at the MSU College of Law, found that minorities in the military are twice as likely to be sentenced to death as their white colleagues.

"If race is on the table, if it puts a thumb on the scale, that's injustice," Grossotold MSU News. "These findings speak for themselves. They reflect how the military criminal justice system is operating, and it can do better." 

Grosso, along with the late David Baluds, the Joseph B. Tye Professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, studied military prosecutions in all potentially death-eligible murders from 1984 to 2005, MSU News reports.

They identified 105 death-eligible murder cases and found what they called unprecedented racial discrimination in the administration of the death penalty in the U.S. military. 

Death-eligible offenses under military law include premeditated and felony murder, which are the focus of Grosso's study.

The study's findings are published in February's peer-reviewed portion of The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.

The racial disparity of minority defendants "sharply distinguishes the military system from the typical civilian system" at a "magnitude that is rarely seen in court systems," researchers say in the study.

The study reports that 16 men have been sentenced to death by the military in the last 27 years; 10 of them were minorities.

Grosso said her findings suggest that efforts to reform the military's capital punishment system, begun in 1984 per executive order, may not have been effective.

"There are people in the military who care deeply about this issue," Grosso said. "But hearing findings like those presented here is never easy. I am optimistic that the military will seek to respond."

In the study, researchers suggest limiting military capital punishment to the most egregious crimes -- murder of a commissioned officer and a premeditated attack on U.S. troops resulting in death -- would mitigate racial prejudice.

Further reform would require another executive order or congressional action, Grosso said.

Victor Cuvo

Attorney at Law

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