A new study examined all cases in which the death penalty was sought in Colorado over a 20-year period, from 1980 to 1999. The study identified 110 death penalty cases, and compared the race and gender of the victims. The authors concluded that the death penalty was most likely to be sought for homicides with white female victims. They also determined that the probability of death being sought was 4.2 times higher for those who killed whites than for those who killed blacks.
(Michael Radelet, Stephanie Hindson, & Hillary Potter, 77 Univ. of Colorado Law Review 549 (2006)).
See Law Reviews, Race, Arbitrariness, and Sentencing.
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