Since 1977, the 77% of those executed have been executed for killing white victims even though African-Americans make up about half of all homicide victims. Since 1973, 140 people have been released from death row due to wrongful convictions. African-American defendants receive the death penalty at three times the rate of white defendants in cases where the victim is white.
While injustice of this sort is prevalent in the criminal justice system, it is unconscionable that the state systematically put to death any of its citizens. The President has a moral obligation to use his authority to commute all death sentences so that the guilty spend life in prison and the wrongly-convicted have time to prove their innocence.