It was a justice department review apparently, brought about by the first federal execution to be scheduled for 37 years.
(I notice that she's no longer attourney general maybe it IS a political post.)
Ah what the fuck I'll post the whole thing;


"The US justice department has confirmed what critics of capital punishment have claimed for years - that the chance of the death penalty being imposed depends largely on the defendant's skin colour and on where the trial is held.
According to leaks published in the New York Times yesterday, a survey ordered by the attorney general, Janet Reno, found that in 75% of the cases in which a federal prosecutor had sought the death penalty in the past five years, the defendant was from a minority. Black defendants accounted for more than half the death penalty cases.

About 40% of the death penalty submissions came from federal prosecutors in only five places - Puerto Rico, eastern Virginia, Maryland, and eastern and southern districts of New York. By contrast, Alaska submitted no death penalty cases in the five-year period, despite the fact that it has a relatively high homicide rate.

The justice department review was launched over a month ago, when the first federal prisoner to face the death penalty in 37 years, Juan Raul Garza, was due to be executed. Mr Garza's execution date was put back to December 12, but his lawyers are seeking clemency in a court case this week.

Most executions in the US are carried out by the fiercely independent state judicial systems, but the federal courts also have the theoretical right to impose the death penalty for a certain list of crimes, including large-scale drug trafficking, drive-by murders, carjacking and the destruction of a plane, train or motor vehicle resulting in death.

David Brock, a member of the Federal Death Penalty Counsel Project, a pressure group opposed to capital punishment, said the justice department report came as no surprise.

"This is what we've been observing for a long time," he said. "There's enough reason to believe the system is biased that no one should be executed under it."

Ms Reno was expected to order further studies on the administration of the death penalty this week, and the gathering uncertainty within the justice department is likely to add momentum to calls for a moratorium on the federal death penalty.

Illinois announced its own moratorium earlier this year, but other states, like Texas, Virginia and Florida, are fiercely attached to capital punishment and have fought off attempts to review their judicial systems."

I'm off to get supper now before my wife kills me.