Studies of the death penalty have long shown racial inequality in its application, but a new report has found the disparity extends inside the death chamber itself. In an analysis of the more than 1,400 lethal injection executions conducted in the U.S. since 1982, researchers for the nonprofit Reprieve reported that states made significantly more mistakes during the executions of Black people than they did with prisoners of other races.
Reprieve, which advocates against the death penalty, found that nationwide, half of the botched lethal injection executions were of Black people, though only a third of the prisoners executed were Black. The pattern was starkest in some Southern states. In Arkansas, Oklahoma and Georgia, three quarters or more of the botched lethal injection executions were of Black people, though they accounted only for a third or less of executions in those states.
