Strong AJC series about the realities of Georgia’s death penalty

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has just completed a very strong series of articles on the operation of the death penalty in Georgia.  Here are the four lead articles from the series:

• Death still arbitrary
• A death case derailed
• Prosecutors divided on armed-robbery murders
• Court botched reviews

These main pieces and the many companion features are must-reads for any serious student of the administration of capital punishment.  A key theme of the series is the arbitrariness of the Georgia death penalty in operation, as evidenced by these data:

• Of Georgia’s 132 most heinous murderers over a recent 10-year span, only 29 of them landed on death row.
• Fifty of the worst killers avoided death by pleading guilty. Some got life sentences and will be eligible for parole.
• A killer’s chances of facing the death penalty increased when the victim was white.