The U.S. Needs To Abolish the Death Penalty

From this piece on the death penalty:

In this past 50 years, the US has put to death at least 1,536 individuals, 34 per cent of them Black, and 8 per cent Latino. Study after study has shown the death penalty is used against people of colour in an extraordinarily disproportionate way. Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, a veteran of death row cases who has watched six of his clients put to death, is clear no single fact more greatly impacts whether an individual prisoner will be executed, than the color of their skin.

I’ve also heard an attorney assert that another huge factor is wealth.  This guy said that, in all the years he’s defended clients against the death penalty, he’s never seen a wealthy person executed.

In any case, all this is a gross violation of the 14th Amendment and its “equal protection” clause.

And even if that weren’t the case, The United States needs to join the rest of the developed world and simply conclude that the death penalty has no place in a civilized society.