A paper which argues that the incidence of capital punishment is spread out disproportionately among minority groups.
This paper shows that if capital punishment in the United States was truly judged on fairness and on the doctrine of equal protection under the law, every state would join the current moratorium against employment of the death penalty. The paper shows that it has been argued for years that a disproportionate number of minorities, indigent and under-educated individuals end up paying the ultimate price and too often so it seems because they were too poor or uneducated to prove their innocence.
“According to a recent study, an estimated 90 percent of American criminal defendants incarcerated for a capital crime are living in poverty when arrested, and nearly all have no money to pay for their defense by the time their case reaches the appeals stage. This means that at least 90 percent of these prisoners must rely upon court appointed attorneys, who many times are inexperienced and/or disinterested. In fact there are countless cases of counsel falling asleep at trial, or even arriving drunk.”