The finding held for high, medium, and low quality studies. Of the recorded 17,000 legal executions in the history of the United States, only 35 have been for white killing black, and a mere 5 of those have occurred since capital punishment recommenced in 1975. The United States Congress has failed repeatedly to pass the Racial Justice Act, which would allow prisoners to challenge their death sentences using standards recognized as normal in civil racial discrimination cases. In a series of rulings since 1991, the Supreme Court has drastically restricted the rights of death row prisoners to appeal their convictions and death sentences in federal courts, even in cases where prisoners present compelling evidence of innocence. Counsel for impoverished capital defendants are most often undertrained and underpaid.
Judges routinely deny lawyers' requests to hire experts or to pay for investigative fees.
Georgia State University Law Review, pp. About 90 percent of those persons facing capital charges cannot afford their own attorney. No state has met standards developed by the American Bar Association for appointment, performance, and compensation of counsel for indigent prisoners. He believes that the residents of Illinois are likewise troubled by the persistent problems in the administration of capital punishment in Illinois. In 1996, new legislation drastically limited federal court review of death penalty appeals and gutted public funding of legal aid services for death row prisoners.