A recent Philadelphia study showed that a defendant who is African-American is almost four times more likely to receive a death sentence than a Caucasian defendant. A striking disparity was discovered in a study comparing those executed for interracial murders. Nine white men have been executed for killing black victims, while 130 black men have been executed for killing whites. Juveniles and mentally retarded persons are put to death. Colorado law currently forbids executing mentally retarded persons or those who were under 18 at the time of their crimes.
Murder rates are lower in states without the death penalty.
The death penalty costs more than life imprisonment. The enormous amount spent on capital punishment reduces available county, state and national resources for education, health care, public safety, capital improvements and other essential services. Every western industrialized nation except the United States has abolished the death penalty. Even South Africa no longer allows capital punishment, and in early June 1999, the Associated Press reported that President Boris Yeltsin had commuted the death sentences of all 716 condemned prisoners in Russia. The United States stands alone among its peers in continuing to execute its citizens.