by TChris

A review of data conducted by the Associated Press and an analysis appearing in a new law review article provide new evidence that the death penalty is unfairly applied. According to the data, whether a criminal defendant will be subject to the death penalty in California often depends upon where the crime is prosecuted. Some particularly zealous California prosecutors are more likely to seek death and some populations of jurors are more likely to impose death than are their counterparts in other counties.

While the facts of each case and the nature of each offender differ from case to case, those factors alone does not explain the disparity in the willingness of different counties to seek or impose the death penalty.

[P]rosecutorial zeal and the attitudes of jurors also are factors. The bottom line, according to the data, is that the death penalty sometimes depends on where the crime was committed.

Can the death penalty be administered fairly if arbitrary differences in the political or moral philosophies of prosecutors and jurors in different counties determine whether death is an option?

"Capital punishment should not depend on an accident of geography," said defense attorney Robert Sanger, who prepared a lengthy analysis of California's death penalty system in the current issue of Santa Clara Law Review.

The disparaties exist nationwide, not just at a local level, but the data in California is instructive.