In my judgment, the death penalty should be outlawed period. While the rest of the world is moving in a more humane direction of outlawing the death penalty, the US is on a death penalty binge. The case against the death penalty is historically, logically and morally irrefutable. First, there is the matter of racism and the death penalty. That's morally and legally wrong.
Race is at play in who is most often given the death penalty.
Secondly, the death penalty is administered in a racially discriminatory manner. Who receives it has less to do with the violence of the crime than with the color of the criminal's skin or, more often, the color of the victim's skin. Even though the facts do not confirm the image, the media projects people of color, but especially young black males, as violent criminals to be feared. This helps to fuel a tough on crime political climate in the country which both fuels and feeds off of irrational racial fears. Thus, death penalty rhetoric has a racist dimension to it.