by Michael B. Ross

About the author: Michael B. Ross has been on Connecticut's death row since June of 1987. He is currently under a stay of execution pending resolution of the appeals process.

"The evidence shows that there is a better than even chance in Georgia that race will influence the decision to impose the death penalty: a majority of defendants in white-victim crimes would not have been sentenced to die if their victims had been black."

Surprisingly, those words were written by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan when he criticized the Court majority for continuing to uphold a "capital-sentencing system in which race more likely than not plays a role. . . ."

Racism: it's a nasty word, and many people would prefer to look the other way and deny its existence. But not only does it exist, it...