Racial Disparity in the Application of the Death Penalty

(Argys Mocan 2004 ,

. 277 . Moreover , the statistics tend to show that with the governor , the decision to commute is based on the personal characteristics of the inmate , the personal characteristics of the governor and the political environment ' more than any other factor (Argys Mocan , 2004 ,

. 278 . All governors must ultimately face the voters and the politics involved in commuting a death row inmate is certainly an issue with which each governor must deal

The problems with racial disparity and the death penalty which exist on the state level also exist

on the federal level . The Attorney General of the United States makes the decision as to whether or not to seek the death penalty against a defendant . The United States Attorney for each federal district has the right to recommend the death penalty in a particular case , but the United States Attorney General makes the ultimate decision . This is in contrast to the state level , where local prosecutors make that decision . Moreover , the United States Attorney General has the authority to seek the death penalty in a case where the United States Attorney has not even recommended it (McNally , 2004 ,

br 1635

Since the federal government reinstituted the death penalty at the federal level , the United States Attorney General has authorized use of the death penalty in over three hundred cases (McNally , 2004 ,

br 1617 . Out of those three hundred cases , 75 of the defendants were minorities (McNally , 2004 ,

. 1617 . During the term of Attorney General Janet Reno , she authorized the use of the death penalty for African-Americans at a rate of about 25 of the defendants (McNally , 2004 ,

. 1624 . During the term of Attorney General John Ashcroft , he authorized the use of the death penalty for African-Americans at a rate of about 1 in every...