In 1976 the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty does not violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishments". Since then many states have passed capital punishment statutes, and over 500 convicted murderers have been executed nationwide. Capital punishment may be constitutional, but there continues to be a debate about whether or not it is fair. One of the major issues in this debate involves race - the race of both the defendant and the murder victim. The central question: is justice blind? In 1998 the Death Penalty Information Center published The Death Penalty in Black and White, a study examining the sentences following 667 murder convictions in Philadelphia courts between 1983 and 1993. This 3-way table shows how many death sentences were given among all the murder convictions. DEATH SENTENCES Black Victim Black Defendant 76 of 422 White Defendant 1 of 25 Total 77 of 447 White Victim 21 of 99 17 of 121 38 of 220 Total 97 of 521 18 of 146 115 of 667 Is our system of justice colorblind in the administration of the death penalty? Based upon the above information, write a newspaper article discussing the association between race and death sentences in the United States. (Don't forget: the best analyses of data usually combine visual, numerical, and verbal descriptions.)