Some opponents of the death penalty call for a moratorium on capital punishment because they believe it unfairly targets minorities. They argue that race, economics and geography influence whether a defendant will receive a life sentence or be sent to death row. One statistic often cited is that African Americans constitute 12 percent of the U.S. population but account for more than 70 percent of those on federal death row.

But proponents of capital punishment point to a recent study released by the Justice Department. This review of federal death penalty cases found no racial or ethnic bias in the administering of capital punishment in the United States. In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft explained that, while a high proportion of defendants on death row are minorities, the study showed that attorneys actually recommended the death penalty more often in cases involving white defendants than in cases involving Hispanic or African-American defendants.

Ashcroft also assured the House that the Justice Department would continue to review areas in question, such as the fact that white defendants were shown to be two times as likely as minority defendants to escape death sentences through plea agreements with prosecutors.

In addition to asserting that discrimination is not a factor in the administration of the death penalty, some consider the overall argument to be irrelevant anyway. They contend that the only real issue at hand with any given case is the person's actual guilt. For example, Ernest van den Haag, a John M. Olin Professor of Jurisprudence and Public Policy at Fordham University states, "Punishments are imposed on persons, not on racial or economic groups. Guilt is personal. The only relevant question is: Does the person to be executed deserve the punishment? Whether or not others who deserved the same punishment, whatever their economic or racial group, have avoided execution is irrelevant. If they have, the guilt of the executed convicts would not be diminished, nor would their punishment be less deserved."