rked as the primary offender for treating different races differently. These statistics show some important trends. For example, it is clear that more Caucasian Americans have been executed since 1976 than any other race. Many of the opponents of the death penalty claim that African American defendants whose victims are White are treated much harsher than White defendants with African American victims. The statistics above shows that there seems to be a trend to support this claim. Nearly 15 times more people executed were African Americans found guilty of interracial crimes than Whites found guilty of them. Socio-Economic ImpactMany defendants on death row are too poor to hire a lawyer, and therefore must rely on court appointed attorneys that earn between $15 - $20 per hour. Over 90% of the inmates on death row fell into this category. Take for example the case of Federica Martinez-Macias who was represented in his capital case by a court appointed lawyer being paid $11.84 per hour. The Counsels general incompetence included failing to provide basic legal guidance during the trial such as, presenting an available alibi witness, relying upon incorrect assumptions on key evidence that simple research would have cleared up, and failing to interview and present witnesses to rebut the prosecutions case. Some years later, a firm in Washington, DC took up this case pro-bono and Martinez-Macias received a competency hearing. After a full investigation into the facts and evidence, which revealed his innocence, Martinez won federal habeas corpus relief. A grand jury refused to re-indict him and he was released after nine years on death row. There are hundreds of examples of poor defendants on death row who have not yet received adequate counsel. How many of them had lawyers like Martinezs? The more pressing question is whether or not the poors inability to hire adequate counsel is in violation of their basic constitutional rights of due procc...
