Ashcroft: Death Penalty Colorblind

W A S H I N G T O N, June 6, 2001 -- A Justice Department review has concludedthere is no evidence of bias against minorities in federal deathpenalty sentences.

The review was based on an analysis of more than 900 death penaltycases and is a follow-up of a Justice Department study releasedlast year that found wide racial and geographic disparities.

"Our analysis has confirmed that black and Hispanic defendantswere less likely at each stage of the department's review processto be subjected to the death penalty than white defendants,"Attorney General John Ashcroft told a hearing on Capitol Hill.

"There is no evidence of racial bias in the administration ofthe federal death penalty," he said.

Differences in state laws governing criminal cases, decisions bystate prosecutors and geographical factors — not intentional racialbias — account for the fact that the majority of defendants facingfederal death sentences are minorities, the study showed.

For instance, some state prosecutors regularly forward cases forfederal prosecution, which would increase the pool of federalcapital cases. Some states, such as Virginia, have prosecutionrequirements that encourage state authorities dealing with drugtrafficking cases to refer cases to U.S. attorneys, who can prosecute defendants in a single trial for activities committed inmore than one state.

An Incomplete Picture?

Death penalty opponents said the Justice Department analysis wasbased on an incomplete picture.

"He is only comparing the total universe of cases that havebeen considered by U.S. attorneys," said Rachel King, an attorneywith the American Civil Liberties Union. "Our contention is thatthe discretionary decision-making process of which cases getconsidered by the U.S. attorney is where the bias is."

At a hearing on Justice programs before the House JudiciaryCommittee, Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan complained toAshcroft that no Democrats on the panel had seen the review he wasannouncing.

"It's an unfair way of presenting something as serious as thedeath penalty," Conyers said.

Mindy Tucker, Ashcroft's spokeswoman, said the review was notreleased to any committee members before the hearing.

Ashcroft had included a description of the review in his openingstatement to the committee.

The study released last year said that of 682 defendants chargedwith capital offenses between 1995 and 2000, 80 percent wereminorities and 20 percent were white.

Ultimately during this period, 20 defendants were sentenced todeath, 20 percent of them white and 80 percent minorities.

More Whites in Death Cases

The study also said that just nine of the 94 U.S. attorneydistricts accounted for about 43 percent of all cases in whichprosecutors called for the death penalty. They were: Puerto Rico,the eastern district of Virginia, Maryland, the eastern andsouthern districts of New York, western Missouri, New Mexico,western Tennessee and northern Texas.

Even though the number of minorities on death row is greaterthan the number of whites, the percentage of minorities sentencedto death out of the total cases involving minorities was lower thanfor whites, Justice officials said.

In arriving at their conclusions, Justice Department lawyerslooked at all the cases in the original study, gathered informationfrom U.S. attorneys and analyzed an additional 250 federal deathpenalty cases that were not part of the 2000 study, Ashcroft said.

The department found a similar ratio of minorities vs. whitedefendants in the 250 new cases studied.

Ashcroft stressed that his assessment — that there's no biasagainst minorities in the federal death penalty system — was thesame drawn by his predecessor, former Attorney General Janet Reno.

Ashcroft said the review showed that federal prosecutorsrecommended the death penalty in smaller proportions in casesinvolving black or Hispanic defendants than in cases involvingwhite defendants.

The review covered federal death penalty cases from 1995 to2000.

Ashcroft does not oppose the death penalty, but said during hisconfirmation hearing that further study was needed to ensure thatracial bias played no role in federal death sentencing.

Change in Protocol

He has reviewed a number of death penalty cases since he becameattorney general; Tucker could not specify how many.

Ashcroft also announced that he was changing federal deathpenalty protocols so that his approval would be required before acapital charge may be dropped in the context of a plea bargain. Hedecided the change was necessary because the Justice Departmentreview showed a slight statistical disparity in the treatment ofplea agreements in cases involving minorities.

He also directed the National Institute of Justice to study howdeath penalty cases are brought into the federal system.

Dead Men Walking

Results of the review were released as a federal judge in Denverrefused to further delay execution of convicted Oklahoma Citybomber Timothy McVeigh. He is scheduled to die Monday.

The review came 13 days before the scheduled execution of JuanRaul Garza, a 44-year-old Hispanic from Texas who was convicted ofrunning a marijuana smuggling operation, killing one man andordering the slayings of two others he thought were informants.

Garza's lawyers had asked President Bush to commute Garza'ssentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole,saying that without the results of the review, there was no tellingwhether his sentence was the result of bias against minorities.

Bush supports the death penalty; Texas executed 152 people whilehe was governor.