States with Governor-imposed Moratorium States with the Death Penalty States without the Death Penalty the political and personal inclinations of prosecutors; the defendant’s wealth, race, and intellect; the race and economic status of the victim; the quality of the defendant’s counsel; and the resources allocated to defense lawyers.” 21 In general, those on death row are disproportionately male, are racial minorities, and come from low socio-economic classes. 22 In fact, the vast majority of individuals on death row are men as the Death Penalty Information Center found that women currently make up about 2 percent of those on death row and about 1 percent of those executed in the modern era of the death penalty. 23 The racial demographics of those cur-rently serving on death row in the United States also suggests a correlation between race and the death penalty: while African Americans represent 13 percent of the US population, they make up 41.56 percent of those on death row and 34 percent of those executed. 24 The remaining populations by race are as follows: 42.10 percent-White, 13.47 percent-Latino, and 2.86 percent-defined as other race. 25 Additionally, studies have pointed to the race of the vic-tims having a significant impact on defendants receiving a death-sentence. More than 75 percent of death row defendants who have been executed were sentenced to death for killing white victims, despite the fact that about half of all homicide victims are African American. 26 As of December 2019, the Death Penalty Information Center reported a significant differ-ence in persons executed for black/white interracial murders since 1976, in its study of cases where a defendant was execut-ed for murdering victims of one race. The study found 21 cases of white defendants executed for the murder of black victims, compared to 295 cases of black defendants executed for the murder of white victims. 27 Additional sources have determined that “if the defendant on trial is black, and the victim is white, he is five times more likely to receive the death penalty than a white defendant who has committed a similar murder regard-less of the race of the victim.” 28 Virginia’s demographics in the imposition of the death www.vsb.org penalty sentencing seems to reflect these national trends. The Death Penalty Information Center tracked statistics from 1977 to 2020 of Virginia’s executions by race of the defendant and reported that 57 white defendants, 52 black defendants, three Latino defendants, and one defendant described as “other” race were executed. 29 During this same time period, Virginia’s executions by race of victims are: 88 white victims, 17 black victims, one Latino victim, one Asian victim, one victim de-scribed as other race, and five cases of victims of multiple rac-es. 30 Upon further analysis, out of Virginia’s 1,390 documented executions carried out since 1608, only four involved a white defendant killing a black victim — all occurring since 1997. 31 Research also indicates that poverty and the imposition of the death penalty are linked: according to the Equal Justice Initiative, a study in 2007 found that 95 percent of individuals on death row have disadvantaged economic backgrounds. 32 A 2012 report from Amnesty International stated that almost all death row inmates could not afford their own attorney at trial. 33 Several sources point to those who are unable to afford effective legal representation being vulnera-ble to the imposition of the death penalty because “whether a defendant will be sentenced to death typically depends on the quality of his legal team more than any other factor.” 34 Scott Phillips, a University of Denver sociology and crim-inology professor, analyzed the imposition of death sentences against defendants in Harris County, Texas, known as the capital of capital punishment, from 1992 to 1999. 35 Phillips’ research revealed that hiring counsel for the entire case elimi-nated the chance of a death sentence: among the 31 defendants who were able to afford hiring counsel for their entire case, none were sentenced to death “despite committing murders that were just as heinous as those committed by defendants with appointed counsel.” 36 Additionally, those defendants who hired counsel for the entire case were 20 times more likely to be acquitted at trial than defendants who did not. 37 In fact, defendants who hired counsel for even a portion a capital case 35 GENERAL INTEREST | VOL. 69 | OCTOBER 2020 | VIRGINIA LAWYER