riminatory application of the death penalty. 33 Before the 1970s, when the death penalty for rape was still used in many states, no white men were guilty of raping nonwhite women, whereas most black offenders found guilty of raping a white woman were executed. Rape is no longer an acceptable crime for capital punishment as ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court Coker v. Georgia. 34 This data shows how the death penalty can discriminate and be used on certain races rather than equally as punishment for severe crimes. While 69 % of white inmates in state prison reported they had lawyers appointed by the court, 77 % of blacks and 73 % of Hispanics had publicly-financed attorneys. In federal prison black inmates were more likely than whites and Hispanics to have public counsel 65 % for blacks, 57 % for whites and 56 percent for Hispanics. And third, poor and friendless defendants, those who are inexperienced or have court-appointed counsel, are most likely to be sentenced to death and executed. 35 So the results of the death penalty have not been clearly identified as the uneven disposition. Defenders of the death penalty, however, argue that, because nothing found in the laws of capital punishment causes sexist, racist, or class bias in its use, these kinds of discrimination are not a sufficient reason for abolishing the death penalty on the idea that it discriminates or violates the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Opponents of capital punishment have replied to this by saying that the death penalty is subject to miscarriage of justice and that it would be impossible to administer fairly. In the Furman v. Georgia in 1972 the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty on the grounds of the Eighth Amendment State and Federal capital punishment laws that permitted wide application of the death penalty. In Woodson v. North Carolina the U.S. Supreme Court decisions made the death penalty in the U.S. unconstitutional, if it is ...
