accounts for this by arguing that cases of black-on-white homicide are more likely to involve additional aggravating factors such as other felonies committed at the time of the crime. 15 However, Stephen Bright does argue that this disparity may be more to do with income, as many who face the death penalty are often unable to fund their own defence, meaning they are often given state appointed lawyers who have been, on occasion, completely inadequate to represent their client. 16 Despite this, a Gallup Poll conducted in 1999 found the majority of Americans, while acknowledging that inequalities in the use of capital punishment linked to wealth and race existed, “they [did] not view such discrimination as a reason to oppose the death penalty.” 17 This suggests that issues linked to race and wealth may not have the same impact on the fluctuating support for capital punishment as they have in the past. Despite issues related to the fairness of the sentencing process, most Americans still support the death penalty. The most common reason given for this support is as a punishment fitting the crime, with 35 percent of those in favour citing this as their reason. 18 It is this tough-on-crime attitude that has added to the politicisation of the death penalty over time and 15 Paul G. Cassell, ‘ In Defense of the Death Penalty’ , in Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment? - the Experts on Both Sides Make Their Best Case , by Hugo Adam Bedau and Paul G Cassell (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004). p. 203 16 Quoted in Michael L. Radelet and Marian J. Borg, ‘The Changing Nature of Death Penalty Debates’, Annual Review of Sociology , 26 (2000), p. 49. Some lawyers have been recorded as attending court drunk or high on drugs. Some have slept through trials or even been racist towards their own client 17 Radelet and Borg, ‘ The Changing Nature of Death Penalty Debates’ , p. 49 18 Gallup, ‘Death Penalty’ .
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