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Article: Death Sentence Lottery
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- July 3, 1990
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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The system of imposing the death sentence in this country is not
working. It completely fails to select for the ultimate punishment
those offenders who have committed the most heinous crimes.
A member of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has said
that if you take 100 cases punished by death and 100 punished by life
and shuffle them, it is impossible to put them back in the right
categories based upon information about the crime and the offender.
One reason is the quality of justice that poor people receive in
capital cases.
A black man was sentenced to death in Georgia in a trial that
started with jury selection at 9 a.m., and ended 17 hours later at 2
a.m. with a death ...