Racial & Economic Biases

 Throughout U.S. history, Black and Latinx people have been disproportionately arrested and convicted of crimes compared to non-BIPOC. On average, Black and Latinx people are more likely, nationwide, to be wrongfully convicted, and take longer than normal to receive exonerations.

Currently, according to the TX Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), Black people make up 45.1% of death row, and Hispanic/Latinx people make up 26.6%, whereas white people only make up 25.5%. This is disproportionate to the Black population in Texas being 3.5 million people, Hispanic/Latinx being 11.3 million people, and white being 19.8 people.

Since 2018, over 70% of death sentences have been imposed on people of color.

white victims amplify odds of a death penalty, Mark Moran

“Racial disparities are present at every stage of a capital case and get magnified as a case moves through the legal process. If you don’t understand the history — that the modern death penalty is the direct descendant of slavery, lynching, and Jim Crow-segregation — you won’t understand why. With the continuing police and white vigilante killings of Black citizens, it is even more important now to focus attention on the outsized role the death penalty plays as an agent and validator of racial discrimination. What is broken or intentionally discriminatory in the criminal legal system is visibly worse in death-penalty cases. Exposing how the system discriminates in capital cases can shine an important light on law enforcement and judicial practices in vital need of abolition, restructuring, or reform.” - DPIC Executive Director, Robert Dunham