Study says Natives more likely to get the noose

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If the Canadian government returns the death penalty in this country, there is a very distinct possibility that Native people would be those most likely to be executed in disproportionate numbers says a recently completed study.

The study which was conducted by Economics Professor Kenneth Avio of the University of Victoria maintains that this potential is larger than life, particularly if the government follows its previous patterns in the conviction and execution of murderers.

"There is no question," says Avio, "that if you were Native, you were more likely to be executed." The discrimination factor was ever-present. All one had to do was review the past statistics in that regard says Avio.

Avio found that, in using an objective case situation in which a white person was murdered and keeping all things equal except for the killer's race, there was only a 21% risk of executing a white person compared to 96% risk for a Native.

Surprisingly, the Department of Indian Affairs was one of the greatest contributors in recommending the death penalty for Native murderers says Avio. The reason for this was that Natives "need special deterrence" according to frequent memos of the department which were uncovered by Avio during his research.

In his study, Avio also uncovered marked differences between white and non-white murderers. Of 21 non-white murderers whose victims were whites, 18 had an appointment with the hangman while only one of five whites were executed for the same offense.

The study which took five years of intensive research to complete included almost every murder case within a 31 year period from 1926 to 1957. In that time, 440 killers were convicted and, of those, 72% were executed.

What Avio questions in his study is, if capital punishment were returned, would the government build in safeguards that would prevent discrimination against minorities? Although this study indicates that Native Ukrainians and French Canadians were executed in disproportionate numbers in the past, the potential to execute individuals of a minority race or culture lives on.

A case in point was a 1942 murder of Slavic origin whom the sentencing judge described as being typical of a class with "low moral standards, a bullying, cruel type greatly given to drink," says Avio's report.

In the state of Georgia, a similar study discovered that killers of white people were more likely to be executed than killers of Black people.

Avios research also found that:

- laborers tended to be more prone to execution than white collar;

- in eight cases, the trial judge or remission officer agreed that manslaughter may have been a more appropriate conviction and, in two instances, the convicted murderer was put to death anyway;

- women were far less likely to be executed than men;

- convicted killers of relatives were treated just as severely as those who were no related of their victims; and

- murder by the use of a firearm was deemed an irrelevant principle by the federal Cabinet.

The results of Avio's study are slated for publication in the Canadian Public Policy journal sometime this year.