The Supreme Court’s recent ruling rejecting the argument that lethal injection is inhumane allowed some states to resume executions, but it only addresses a small sliver of the controversy. Justice Stevens went on record stating that the practice of capital punishment might very well be unconstitutional. Regardless of your belief on the matter, you should know that the larger argument against capital punishment is grounded in dynamics that go far beyond what method is used. Recent research has provided compelling evidence that race plays a major role in the death penalty. We should be arguing for a moratorium on the grounds that the punishment is administered in a consistently biased manner.
