The Death Penalty and the Race Card

The "Race Card" is frequently used by opponents of the death penalty. As Mark Twain said "There are lies, there are damn lies and then there are statistics." With that in mind death penalty opponents cite various statistics to bolster their claim that a disproportionate number of death row inmates are black. Gregory Kane has written a column, "The crime, not his race, put Baker on death row," which explains the situation differently.

Baker is black. His victim was white. Death penalty opponents point to that to support their claim that Maryland's death penalty is racist. They talk of a racial disparity -- blacks are disproportionately represented on death row, and they're more likely to wind up there if they killed a white person.

They also talk about another disparity: None of the blacks on death row in Maryland was convicted of killing blacks. Now let's be clear why the disparity exists. Many of Maryland's black murder victims are slain in Baltimore by other blacks, and city prosecutors seldom, if ever, seek capital punishment. The "racial disparity" is, in fact, a geographical one that proves there may be something to the adage that "geography is fate."

So it's like the three most important things in real estate "location, location, location." There may be some subtle latent racism left in our criminal justice system but there is a way to avoid that - don't do the crime.

Jane Tyson was fatally shot 14 years ago through no fault of her own. Wesley Baker is on death row today for the actions of Wesley Baker. "Racial disparity" had nothing to do with it.

Don't expect any of those clamoring for Baker's clemency to utter that truth.