Disparities In Federal Death Cases

The Justice Department reported Tuesday that blacks, Hispanics and other minorities were considered for the federal death penalty more often than whites, accounting for 74 percent of such cases since 1995.

Attorney General Janet Reno, who presented the report's findings at a briefing, said the statistics were cause for concern, and acknowledged that a similar racial disparity exists throughout the U.S. criminal justice system.

"The survey today finds that minorities are over-represented in the federal death penalty system, as both victims and defendants, relative to the general population," Reno said. "Sadly, the same is true of the entire criminal justice system, both state and federal. This should be of concern to us all."

The report found that U.S. attorneys recommended seeking the death penalty for 183 defendants in the last five years. Of those, Reno said, 20 percent were white, nearly half were black, about 30 percent were Hispanic and the rest were other races and ethnic groups.

Among all white defendants, they recommended the death penalty 36 percent of the time, 25 percent of the time for black defendants, 20 percent of the time for Hispanic defendants and 52 percent of the time for other races and ethnicities, Reno said.

The report also found that U.S. attorneys in 49 of the nation's 94 districts were responsible for all 183 of the death penalty recommendations, suggesting geographic differences in how the penalty is sought.

However, Reno said she would not call for a moratorium on the death penalty while these apparent disparities are studied further.

She blamed the disparities on societal injustice rather than biased prosecutors. She said minorities are disproportionately affected by such social ills as poverty and lack of opportunity, and that as long as those conditions exist, minorities will continue to be over-represented in the criminal justice system.

In the last five years, Reno approved seeking death penalties for 159 defendants, nearly three-quarters of whom were minorities. Ultimately 20 people were sentenced to death; 80 percent of them are minorities.

"I'm particularly struck by the fact that African-Americans and Hispanics are over-represented in those cases presented for consideration of the death penalty and those cases where the defendant is actually sentenced to death," said Assistant Attorney General Eric Holder.

"And yet, I'm always mindful that in another part of the criminal justice system, blacks are also over-represented: as victims," Holder said.

At the White House, spokesman Jake Siewert said President Clinton "has flagged this as something that he finds very important."

"He's said repeatedly those of us who support capital punishment have a special obligation to do what we can to ensure that the death penalty is administered fairly," Siewert said of Mr.Clinton.

The president said the study raises questions, but he that there hs been no suggestion that anyone has been wrongly convicted. He says he'll consult with the Reno before deciding what to do about the findings.

While the current federal death penalty statute has been on the books since 1988, and was expanded in 1994, no one has been put to death as a result of it. The last federal execution was 37 years ago.

Sen. Russ Feingold, a Minnesota Democrat, repeated his call for Clinton to suspend temporarily federal executions until an independent commission could conduct a thorough review.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont who has introduced legislation to ensure death row inmates have access to DNA testing and competent counsel, said the report was "more clear evidence that the death penalty system is broken."

"The way the death penalty is applied is a travesty, and we have no excuses not to fix it," he said in a statement.