IDEALLY, THE DEATH penalty should be reserved only for the most heinous, unrepentant, and horrible of murderers. Those who torture their victims or commit multiple homicides or blow up airplanes might fall into this category. In real life, however, the death penalty is occasionally administered to people who do not fit that profile. The race of the victim and competence of the defendant's attorney may be more pertinent factors than the heinousness of the crime. This is pointed out by law professor Steven Goldstein of Florida State University in an interview with Time magazine:

The trouble with the death penalty is that it's like a lottery. There are so many discretionary stages: whether the prosecutor decides to seek the death penalty, whether the jury recommends it, whether a judge gives it.

Only the worst cases"

A...