Extensive evidence shows that death sentencing continues to be arbitrary in the United States.
The death penalty is applied neither fairly nor consistently. Several thousand defendants are convicted of murder each year, and less than 1 percent of them receive death sentences. Gravity of crime and culpability are not always factors in determining the sentence. Race, social and economic status, level of education, location of crime, and pure chance play significant roles in the legal processes which send some defendants to prison, others to death. Offenders who commit similar crimes under similar circumstances have received widely differing sentences.