The results of two new studies underscore the continuing...

The results of two new studies underscore the continuing injustice of racism in the application of the death penalty. The first study, conducted by Professor Jeffrey Pokorak, found that the key decision makers in death penalty cases around the country are almost exclusively white men. Of the chief district attorneys in counties using the death penalty, nearly 98% are white and only 1% are African-American. A second study, by Professor David Baldus and statistician George Woodworth, found that the odds of receiving a death sentence are nearly four times (3.9) higher if the defendant is black. In Texas, an African-American convicted of killing a white is 6 times more likely to receive the death penalty than a white who kills an African American. Eight of the 39 inmates on Kentucky's death row, or 20.5%, are black. The percentage of black inmates on Kentucky's death row is nearly three times the percentage of blacks in the state. In addition, none of the men on Kentucky's death row were convicted of killing a black person. In fact, the only time a white man was executed for killing a black person in the state was in 1936. In this decade, South Carolina has executed three whites for crimes against nonwhites, more than any other state. Of the 69 inmates on South Carolina's death row, only three are whites convicted of killing a non-white victim. The 69 people on South Carolina's death row had 77 murder victims. If all those inmates were put to death today, executions would reflect 72.9% white victims in a state where white people are the least likely to be slain, crime records show. In the United States since 1976, 11 whites have been executed for killing an African-American while 144 blacks have been executed for murdering a white person. Nationwide, of people on death row, 47% are white and 43% are black, even though blacks make up only 13% of the USA population.