‘A Worthless, Good-for-Nothing Mammal’: Painting Black Defendants as Animals - Racist Roots: Origins of North Carolina’s Death Penalty

The use of animal imagery to describe Black criminal defendants plays into a long and brutal history of dehumanizing Black people. 20^th century newspapers compared Black men to animals when covering their executions.

“the young gorilla-like negro”

“like a wild beast”

“brute”

News and Observer, 1923 (right next to a recipe for Christmas cookies)

“Gross looked the part of the picture that ‘mean n[—–]’ conjures up. Short squat, thick-bodied and with the face of a gorilla”

“the eyes of a trapped animal; eyes that darted furtively from first one ‘captor’ or guard, then another”

“The fight-back instinct of the trapped animal surged to a climax”

Prosecutors likewise compared Black defendants to animals at trial.

“He is a human hyena and should be treated as such.”
– Gates County prosecutor, 1926

Even in the era of the modern death penalty, prosecutors still use animal imagery and other dehumanizing slurs when arguing to juries why Black men should be executed.

“a pack of humans acting as wolves when they descended on her”

Called the defendant an “animal” and his neighborhood a “jungle”

“like a big black bull”

“like the weasel that he is… a worthless, good for nothing mammal”

“just like the predators of the African plain.”

“a street-wise, Department-of-Corrections-honed thug”

Next – States’ Rights: How One Law Allowed a Scourge of Racist Death Sentences

The federal government plays a critical role in upholding our nation’s promise of equality. The Fourteenth Amendment, which granted due process and equal protection, was passed during Reconstruction to protect newly freed people from racist state laws.

Nearly 100 years later, the federal government again stepped in to protect Black Americans from the continued racism of state courts and legislatures. While Strom Thurmond and George Wallace railed against federal interference with “states’ rights,” Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Supreme Court enshrined the victories of the Civil Rights Era, desegregating schools, increasing protections for those accused of crimes, and, in 1972, temporarily abolishing of the death penalty.

Like mid-century segregationists, the AEDPA exalts the autonomy of states at the expense of marginalized people. When state courts allow injustice to flourish, the AEDPA prevents federal courts from acting as the backstop they should be.

Today, however, federal courts offer little protection against racist death sentences handed down in state courts. This is due largely to one law: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. Like mid-century segregationists, the AEDPA exalts the autonomy of states at ...