Raymond Paternoster (February 29, 1952 – March 5, 2017) was an American criminologist who taught at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

from 1982 until his death in 2017.

Education

Paternoster received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

from the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

in 1973, his master's from

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of T ...

in 1975, and his Ph.D. from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

in 1978.

Career

Paternoster joined the faculty of the

University of South Carolina The University of South Carolina (USC, SC, or Carolina) is a Public university, public research university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, It is the flagship of the University of South Car ...

as an assistant professor in 1978. He joined the faculty of the University of Maryland in 1982 and subsequently became a full professor there in 1990.

Research

Paternoster was known for his research on racial disparities in the application of

capital punishment in the United States In the United States, capital punishment (also known as the death penalty) is a legal penalty in 27 states (of which two, Oregon and Wyoming, do not currently have any inmates sentenced to death), throughout the country at the federal leve ...

. This research includes a study of racial bias in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

's death penalty, commissioned by the state's then-governor, Parris N. Glendening. Paternoster then spent 2 and a half years analyzing data before releasing the study in 2003. The study reported that black defendants who killed whites were much more likely to be sentenced to death than defendants who killed blacks, whether the defendants were black or white. In a 2006 dissent,

Maryland Court of Appeals The Supreme Court of Maryland (previously the Maryland Court of Appeals) is the highest court of the U.S. state of Maryland. The court, which is composed of one chief justice and six associate justices, meets in the Robert C. Murphy Courts of ...

Chief Judge Robert M. Bell cited Paternoster's research on this topic as evidence that capital punishment in Maryland was biased against blacks. In his dissent in a case brought by death row inmate Vernon Evans, Jr., Bell wrote, "The Paternoster study provides substantial evidence that the Baltimore County State's Attorney's Office singled out black defendants from similarly situated white defendants when choosing against whom to seek the death penalty."

References

External links

Faculty pageIn Memoriam: Raymond Paternoster
UDaily
2017 Obituaries

American Society of Criminology The American Society of Criminology (ASC) is an international organization based on the campus of Ohio State University whose members focus on the study of crime and delinquency. It aims to grow and disseminate scholarly research, with members wo ...

* 1952 births 2017 deaths American criminologists University of Maryland, College Park faculty Florida State University alumni University of Delaware alumni Southern Illinois University alumni Deaths from pancreatitis {{criminologist-stub