More black convicts face capital punishment than whites.
Activists call for a federal moratorium on executions.
A Justice Department study has found that black convicts in the federal penal system face the death penalty much more often than white prisoners, confirming the arguments of those who say that capital punishment is not applied uniformly. The statistical survey, the first comprehensive study of the federal death penalty since it was reinstated in 1988, found a wide racial disparity in recommendations for capital punishment from federal prosecutors across the country. Roughly three-fourths of federal defendants recommended for capital punishment over the last five years were minorities. With the fairness of capital punishment figuring in the presidential campaign, the findings promptly led to renewed calls from some members of Congress, legal groups and human rights organizations for a federal moratorium on executions. Instead, Reno called for additional research and said that overrepresentation of minorities on federal death rows reflects racial and economic disparities throughout the criminal justice system and points to the connection between crime and higher rates of economic and social problems in minority communities.