death, NOT that a race is overrepresented. If a particular ethnic group is overrepresented we should ask why... is it bias on the part of prosecutors that ask for the death penalty? Bias on the part of juries? Is it due to economics with blacks getting stuck with incompetent public defenders? I think we can put processes in place to fix all of those things. I have said for many years that nobody should be put to death unless it's a virtual certainty that he's guilty. The word of a jailhouse snitch or co conspirator should not be sufficient. Even eyewitnesses are notoriously bad. If there is not direct forensic evidence like fingerprints or DNA or possibly something like surveillance video then a person should not be executed.

Studies show that the race of the victim correlates better with a death sentence than the race of the offender. It would be interesting to see data for specific types of homicides... home invasions and carjackings vs drug deal gone bad, store robberies, murder of a cop, etc.

I don't think it's wrong to decide we are more afraid of, say, home invasions so we include home invasion as a type of homicide, even if it turns out that a particular ethnic group commits those types of crimes more often so it might make the overall data look skewed when it's really explainable.