David Christopher Baldus (June 23, 1935 – June 13, 2011) was a Joseph B. Tye professor of law at the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

. He held the position from 1969 until his death in 2011. His research focused on law and social science and he conducted extensive research on the death penalty in the United States.

Biography

Baldus received his Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 (Government Major) from Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

 in 1957, his Master of Arts

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 (Political Science) from the University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

 in 1962. He went on to attend Yale Law School

Yale Law School

Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...

, earning a LL.B.

Bachelor of Laws

The Bachelor of Laws is an undergraduate, or bachelor, degree in law originating in England and offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree...

 in 1964 and a LL.M.

Master of Laws

The Master of Laws is an advanced academic degree, pursued by those holding a professional law degree, and is commonly abbreviated LL.M. from its Latin name, Legum Magister. The University of Oxford names its taught masters of laws B.C.L...

 in 1969. He practiced law

Practice of law

In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professional services of a lawyer or attorney at law, barrister,...

 in Pittsburgh from 1964–68.

He served as a Lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 for the Army Security Agency from 1958–59.

Equal Justice and the Death Penalty study

In 1983 David C. Baldus, along with Charles A. Pulaski and George Woodworth, published a study examining the presence of racial discrimination

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

 in death penalty sentencing. The study analyzed over 2000 murder cases occurring in the state of Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

 in the 1970s. The cases examined by Baldus all occurred between two United States Supreme Court cases involving Georgia: Furman v. Georgia

Furman v. Georgia

Furman v. Georgia, was a United States Supreme Court decision that ruled on the requirement for a degree of consistency in the application of the death penalty. The case led to a de facto moratorium on capital punishment throughout the United States, which came to an end when Gregg v. Georgia was...

(1972) and McCleskey v. Kemp

McCleskey v. Kemp

McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 , was a United States Supreme Court court case, in which the death penalty sentencing of McCleskey for armed robbery and murder was upheld...

(1987). The study looked primarily at the race of the victim in each murder case in order to evaluate the presence of racial discrimination in the sentencing process. The study also examined, to a lesser extent, the race of the defendant, in order to evaluate the presence of racial discrimination in the sentencing process. After evaluating the initial findings in the study, Baldus and his colleagues subjected their data to extensive analysis involving 230 variables that could have explained the findings on non-racial grounds. In one such analysis that subjected the data to 39 nonracial variables, Baldus found that defendants accused of killing white victims were 4.3 times more likely to receive the death penalty than defendants accused of killing black victims. This analysis also showed that black defendants were 1.7 times more likely than white defendants to receive the death penalty. Based on these findings, Baldus and his colleagues concluded that a black defendant accused of killing a white victim was more likely than any other type of defendant to receive the death penalty. These results were used by the defense in McCleskey v. Kemp to try to show that racial discrimination had played a role in the sentencing of Warren McCleskey. Two types of statistical studies were used in order to examine these murder trials, the Procedure Reform study and the Charging and Sentencing study.

Procedure Reform Study

The purpose of the Procedure Reform study was to compare the procedure with which Georgia sentenced convicted murder defendants before and after Furman v. Georgia. The study then looked for reforms in the sentencing procedure after Furman v. Georgia and assessed how reforms affected discrimination found in sentencing decisions. Baldus and his colleagues looked specifically at two aspects of the trial for the Procedure Reform study: whether or not the prosecutor chose to seek the death sentence after a capital murder conviction was obtained, and whether or not the jury

Jury

A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...

 imposed a death sentence after the trial. The Procedure Reform study was conducted for purely academic and reasons and the researchers had no intentions of using the results in actual murder trials.

Results of Procedure Reform Study

The Procedure Reform study looked at murder trials which occurred both before and after Furman v. Georgia. Baldus's study found that in murder trials before Furman v. Georgia, the death penalty was given to black defendants 19% of the time and to white defendants 8% of the time. The death penalty was given to defendants with black victims 10% of the time and to defendants with white victims 18% of the time. From this data, the researchers concluded that the race of the victim was more influential than the race of the defendant in death penalty sentencing. It was also concluded that black defendants and defendants with white victims were given harsher punishments that other defendants convicted of the same crimes.

In murder trials occurring after Furman v. Georgia, Baldus and his fellow researchers found that the death penalty was given to 22% of white defendants and to 16% of black defendants. In trials where the victim was white the death penalty was given out 27% of the time and in trials where the victim was black the death penalty was given out 7% of the time.

Charging and Sentencing Study

The Charging and Sentencing study placed its emphasis on the amount of influence that racial and other illegitimate case characteristics had on the progress of cases from the point of indictment up to the death penalty sentencing decision. The Charging and Sentencing study was conducted by request from the NAACP which funded the study and which hoped to use the results from the study to challenge the death-penalty system in Georgia.

Results of Charging and Sentencing Study

The results of the Charging and Sentencing study were the basis of Warren McCleskey's appeal (McCleskey v. Kemp) that the death penalty sentencing in his trial was influenced by racial discrimination. Baldus and his colleagues found in the Charging and Sentencing Study that of the 2,484 cases studied, 128 defendants were given a sentence of the death penalty, meaning that 5% of all studied defendants were sentenced to death. The researchers also found that in cases where the victim was white, the death sentences was handed out at a rate 8.3 times higher than in cases where the victim was black. Finally, the study concluded that in cases with white victims and black defendant the death penalty was given out 21% of the time while in cases where both the victim and defendant were white the death penalty was given 8%of the time.