"Twenty years have passed since this Court declared that the
death penalty must be imposed fairly, and with reasonable
consistency, or not at all, and, despite the effort of the
states and courts to devise legal formulas and procedural rules
to meet this daunting challenge, the death penalty remains
fraught with arbitrariness, discrimination, caprice, and
mistake." Factors contributing to the arbitrariness of the death
penalty: - Almost all death row inmates could not afford their
own attorney at trial. Court-appointed attorneys often lack the
experience necessary for capital trials and are overworked and
underpaid. In the most extreme cases, some have slept through
parts of trials or have arrived under the influence of drugs
and/or alcohol. - Prosecutors seek the death penalty far more
frequently when the victim of a homicide is white than when the
victim is African-American or of another ethnic/racial origin. -
Co-defendants charged with committing the same crime often
receive different punishments, where o