According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Black people are sentenced to death at disproportionate rates compared to their white counterparts, even when convicted for similar crimes.
In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled in McCleskey v. Kemp that proof of systemic racial bias in a death penalty system alone is not enough to prove discrimination in an individual case. However, the Court has expressed concerns about the potential for racial bias in the death penalty system and has left open the possibility that future evidence of racial bias could lead to a different conclusion.
