Across the political and religious spectrum, Americans are
rethinking the death penalty. Here are some reasons why:
Mistakes. In January 2012, Joe D'Ambrosio became the 140th
person on death row in the U.S. to be exonerated since 1973.
Addressing the issue of biased application, Supreme Court
Justice William J. Brennan said in 1994 that "the death penalty
is imposed not only in a freakish and discriminatory manner, but
also in some cases upon defendants who are actually innocent."
Bias. In many death-penalty states, defendants are much more
likely to be executed if their victim was white. Studies show
that black defendants are more likely to receive the death
penalty than others. And in death-penalty states, 98 percent of
chief district attorneys are white and only 1 percent are
African American. No deterrent. Study after study shows that
capital punishment does not deter murder. The murder rate in
states without the death penalty has remained consistently lower
than the rates in states with capital punishmen