[irishgrl]

Originally Posted by sparky

I always find this kind of statistic confusing, and perhaps even misleading.

Is the number supposed to indicate simply that more blacks get the death penalty than any other race, all crimes being equal, or is it simply a reflection of the percentage of the number of blacks convicted of crimes eligible for the death penalty?

What I am getting at is are there simply more blacks on death row because there are just that many more blacks committing crimes that get them there?
I truly don't know.

I guess the telling statistic would be what percentage of each race eligible for the death penalty gets that pinned to their sentence. This statistic is kind of without a point unless that is known.

sparky, this may help:

Race of Death Row Inmates actually executed:
White 57%
Black 34%
Hispanic 7%
Other 2%