In an article by Amnesty International's Campaign on the United States of America, the author states, "More than 100 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. The USA by contrast has increased its rate of executions and the number of crimes punishable by death. At this time 38 states currently have the death penalty on their statute books". The article goes on to claim, "The application of the death penalty is not only in-humane but racist. Black and white people are the victims of violent crime in roughly equal numbers, yet 82% of people executed since 1977 have been convicted of killing white victims". The following statistics would disprove this theory, however. During 1998 68 people in 18 states were executed - 20 in Texas; 13 in Virginia; 7 in South Carolina; 4 in Arizona, Florida, and Oklahoma; 3 each in Missouri and North Carolina; and 1 each in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, and Washingt!
             on. Sixty-six of those executed were men and two were woman. Of those statistics; 48 were white, 18 were African American, 1 was American Indian and 1 was Asian. Of persons under sentence of death, 1,906 are white, 1,486 are African American, 29 are American Indian, 18 are Asian and 13 are classified as "other race. The 314 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death accounted for 10 % of inmates with a known ethnicity and 48 of all inmates were women". Hardly grounds for racial outcries, however, the moral debate over taking a life, whether sanctioned by law or not still rages on. At years end 1998, 37 states and the Federal prison system held 3,452 prisoners under sentence of death, 4 % more than at years end 1997. All had committed murder. Can we justify our right to decided life and death with regards to another human being? In the United States and overwhelming majority support the death penalty, including myself. Can we justify the use of capital p...