The ACLU's online Execution Watch is designed to heighten public awareness of the rising tide of death row executions, from one in 1977, to 74 in 1997, as well as the racial, economic and geographical inequalities embedded in death sentencing practices. People who have the economic means to hire their own attorneys and those accused murderers whose victims were people of color almost never receive a death sentence. And in general, those who commit crimes in southern states, as opposed to northern, are more frequently sentenced to die. At 3,500, the population of America's death row is not only the largest in U.S. history, but in the world. If all goes as scheduled, the 500th execution will occur today in South Carolina.
Discrimination equals death, and both are on the rise.
The ACLU's Execution Watch campaign gif can easily be posted on individual and organization websites and will link to regularly updated capital punishment news from around the country.