Cal State Fullerton Associate Professor of Psychology Russ Espinoza, researched whether the theory of “aversive racism” plays a role in death penalty decisions -- and found the answer is “yes.”

“Aversive racism” is thought to be a phenomenon in which people believe they harbor no prejudice toward minorities, when in fact they have a subconscious bias, Espinoza said.

“When jurors can find other reasons besides race to place blame, such as low socioeconomic status, they will tend to be more punitive toward minority defendants and feel that they are not being prejudicial,” he said in explaining the theory.

“My past research has shown that the race or ethnicity of the defendant alone is not sufficient for jurors to demonstrate bias,” he said in explaining the origins of the study. “This begs the question, how is it that African Americans and Latinos are found guilty more often and given more punitive sentences, such as the death penalty, than European Americans for committing similar crimes?”

Espinoza said he first gained interest in the topic of prejudice in the legal system during high school, when he was suspended from the basketball team after being falsely accused of breaking and entering into a hall.

“I was in class one day and the vice principal comes and pulls me out and the sheriff’s are there,” Espinoza said. “I was being accused of breaking into this hall.”

He said that nearly two weeks after being accused, the real culprit was found. A passion for researching injustice had been ignited. He has spent some two decades studying the subject.

Espinoza earned his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Cal State Northridge in 1998.

In 2000, he became CSU Northridge alumni for the second time, graduating with a Master’s degree in Counseling. Five years later, Espinoza earned his PhD in Psychology and Law from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where he worked with professors researching jury decisions in the courtroom.

Espinoza and research partner, Cynthia Willis-Esqueda, professor of psychology and ethnic studies at Nebraska, Lincoln, spent a year analyzing whether African Americans and Latinos are more likely than whites to receive the death penalty for similar crimes.

The death penalty study took place at a Santa Ana courthouse and involved jurors from the local jury duty pool.

“We had them read through kind of a fictitious trial transcript,” said Espinoza, “And we manipulated things like race of the defendant, socioeconomic status.”

The median age of the mock jurors was roughly 38.

Compared to a group of students in their 20s, the older jury pool was harsher in its sentencing, he said.

“We found that the mock jurors with the average of age 38 tended to throw the book at minorities,” he said.

The results reinforced what Espinoza had hypothesized: If jurors could find factors besides race to find the defendant guilty, they would then have a more punitive attitude towards minorities and feel as if they are not being prejudicial.

The study found that African Americans and Latinos with a low socioeconomic status and weak mitigating factors were more likely to receive the death penalty.

Espinoza said it is important to educate jurors about these biases in order to prevent unfair decisions.