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7 of 8 Facing June Executions are Black or Latino

By Jeralyn, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Mon Jun 02, 2003 at 03:13:37 PM EST
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What's wrong with this picture, asks the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty?

Seven of the eight people facing serious execution dates in June are African American or Latino, demonstrating unfair bias in the way the death penalty is applied, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said today.

Between June 5 and June 27, eight people face serious execution dates in the states of Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Utah. (A ninth person, Troy Kell of Utah, also has an execution date pending but is expected to receive a stay.) Of the eight people with serious dates, six are African American, one is Latino and one is white.

"The death penalty is biased in two ways when it comes to race,” said Steven W. Hawkins, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. “First, blacks make up 43 percent of death row population, but only 13 percent of the U.S. population generally. Second, and more significantly, the race of the victim determines who lives and who dies. Of those executed since 1976, 81 percent were convicted of killing white victims. 19 percent were convicted of killing minority victims.”

Hawkins noted that a number of the executions scheduled in June dramatically portray problems with the way the death penalty is applied:

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