Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution

by Elie Mystal

But the law’s historical bloodlust is still overcome by the very point of law itself: to have rules that can be relied upon as opposed to whims that are applied in an arbitrary and capricious fashion by a despot. Capital punishment, as applied in our legal system, has none of the characteristics of good laws. It’s not reliable: we literally convict and condemn innocent people all the time. It’s not repeatable: similar crimes are treated as capital offenses or not depending on minor aggravating factors, the random geography of where the crime took place, or the good graces of the judge or jury that happens to hear the case. And, most importantly, it’s not just or fair: the death penalty is carried out more frequently against poor defendants and even more frequently against Black and brown defendants.