Can the Death Penalty Be JustEvery American should desire fairness in all areas of public policy - this is especially true regarding the death penalty death, since the stakes are high. But opponents of the death penalty make a very peculiar argument about fairness. They argue that if the death penalty is not administered fairly, and especially administered with racial equity, it must be abolished. No one would even think of trying to apply this principle consistently. If we found that black neighborhoods received less police protection than white neighborhoods, would we withdraw police from both white and black neighborhoods? If banks discriminated against Black homebuyers in making mortgage loans, would we ask them to stop all mortgage lending? If we found that the IRS discriminated against middle class and poor taxpayers, would we want to abolish the IRS? Okay, this has an appeal, but no one seriously suggests it. What do opponents say of the death penalty that should replace it? Maybe life imprisonment? But there is no reason to believe that this punishment is imposed more fairly than the death penalty. So will we lower the maximum limit to 10 years? If so, we are faced with the same problem. In addition to the philosophical incoherence of the argument, the empirical reality of racial disparity in capital punishment is much more complicated than simplistic notions of widespread racism in the criminal justice system would lead you to believe. . It is important to understand that death penalty opponents make two different arguments about racial equity, and they are patently contradictory. The first thing we see when we start looking at the statistics is... middle of paper... ....hospital defendants are a highly self-selected and unlikely to be impartial group. So what we have, in terms of hard statistical evidence, fails to support the politically correct fantasy of massive discrimination. Is the death penalty administered with perfect fairness? No. Is it administered with the same fairness as other public policies, and above all with the same fairness as other criminal sanctions? Yes. Public officials should work to make the system even fairer. In particular, better measures could be envisaged for effective defense in capital cases. And I think a return to executive clemency (which has fallen out of use) in cases where a jury is believed to have been too harsh would be a good thing. But the idea that injustice, and particularly racial injustice, requires an end to the death penalty makes neither philosophical nor empirical sense..