The law is meant to bar racist application of capital punishment, but not the punishment itself.
Retributionists are also likely to be offended by racial or other disparities in the imposition of the death penalty, as the uniform application of retributive punishment is central to the philosophy.
The court issued its decision on the same morning that it heard arguments in another closely watched death penalty case, a challenge to Louisiana's application of capital punishment for the crime of child rape.
One of the strongest arguments against capital punishment, in my view, has not to do with its effect upon the criminal who is punished, but with what it does to those involved in the application of the punishment.
Minorities are most likely to fall victim to the uneven application of capital punishment.
But differences in the laws of Maryland and Virginia on the application of capital punishment are stirring an early debate.
Racism in the application of capital punishment has been well documented in the civilian justice system since the Supreme Court reinstated the penalty in 1976.
President Clinton, faced in December with the first federal execution since the 1960's, delayed the lethal injection of Juan Raul Garza until June because of concerns about possible racial disparities in the application of capital punishment.
Fund "focused on the persistence of racial discrimination" in the application of capital punishment, but the Justices "consistently declined to use race as the lens for understanding or regulating the American death penalty".
By contrast, opponents maintain that the historical application of capital punishment shows that any attempt to single out certain kinds of crime as deserving of death will inevitably be arbitrary and discriminatory.
A federal jury, after deliberating for only two hours, unanimously rejected the death penalty yesterday for two Bronx heroin dealers convicted of murder, handing a setback to Attorney General John Ashcroft's efforts to expand the application of capital punishment in the New York region.
