some guy named fred engels wrote a couple of years ago: 'capital punishment is nothing but blood revenge in a civilized form' - _origin of the family, private property and the state_...
**********race & class & race & class & class & race & class & race**********
(and a little thing called federalism)
other factors (generally related to above): community/media reaction to murder committed & identity of victim, prosecution decision to charge arrested suspect with capital crime & to seek death penalty or allow defendent to plea-bargain for life, such decision itself depends on chance: ambition/inclination of local prosecutor, legal/political pressures, competence/incompetence of court-appointed defense attorney...
of course, deciding who will die among those convicted of murder isn't issue in states that no longer retain death penalty, in those that do, other vagaries exist after decision to seek death penalty is made: trial presided over by hanging judge or judge whose rulings go one way/other depending upn on who victim's/defendant's family is, who is prosecuting/defending case, and upon conviction, juries in some counties consistently impose death, those in other counties rarely do...
consider texas, kingpin of capital punishment, in last 30 years (since supreme court's ruling in _gregg v georgia_), about 20% of counties with trials in which death penalty could have been imposed have put no one on death row, on other hand, harris county (houston) alone, accounts for over 25% of state's death row inmates...
over time, some death row inmates have politicized their cases, and well they should have, some knew/others came to understand political economy of injustice, which, in itself, doesn't any of them 'good guys,' but as Tocqueville wrote (about slavemasters), "the same man who is full of humanity toward his fellow creatures when they are at the same time his equals becomes insensible to their affliction as soon as that equality ceases"...
day when people are no longer condemned to death on basis of race & class will be day when no one is condemned to death at all... michael hoover (who disagrees with engels' use of 'civilized' in above quote) -------------------------------------------------------------- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.