[muawiyah]

Not a very good reason ~ if true ~ my recollection was the courts felt too many black men were getting convicted and not enough white guys were going down.

The solution, now that we have DNA to work with, is to put all of 'em down, and to select hanging juries.

[ariamne]

Not a very good reason ~ if true ~ my recollection was the courts felt too many black men were getting convicted and not enough white guys were going down.

Perhaps both reasons played a part in the 1977 Supreme Court decision; I don't recall the debate about rape convictions being unfairly handed down based on race. I remember the decision only because I was a liberal feminist at the time, (I was 19, young, stupid and highly influenced by my college profs) and didn't believe in the death penalty. But I had mixed feelings because I hated the rapists too! Well, I still think rapists are the scum of the earth, but I have no longer have a problem with the death penalty.