But in fact it is not a lottery. At least no more so than life in general.
If the deck is stacked, and you can show it's stacked, against, for example, males; those whose victim was white as opposed to black; the poor; the unlettered -- in crimes of the same severity, in studies controlling for all factors except the above...
then the death penalty is a lottery rigged by race, sex, and class.
Because not everyone is going to die. Not everyone will have the "choice" made about them that they should die. Those with the losing "tickets" will find that "choice" made about them. Other reasons than the statistically demonstrable one(s) will be given, and believed by those who give them. (No DA ever says, or thinks, "If you were a woman, I wouldn't make the charge a capital one, too bad for you, dude.")
If the deck is stacked, all the circumstances of the crime itself being the same, it's a rigged lottery.
The question is, is that true? Do some, all else being equal (ie all else being controlled-for in the studies), have better "tickets" in the Lottery for Life or Death than others? When they've done identical crimes under identical circumstances? |
