Ohio’s death penalty is racist and sexist:
[Frank Baumgartner, a University of North Carolina political science professor] looked at Ohio’s 53 executions between 1999 and 2014, finding “significant and troubling racial, gender, and geographic disparities with regards to who is executed in Ohio.” Baumgartner concluded that the victim’s race and gender, and the county where the murder occurred, influenced whether or not the killer was executed.
…
The study [PDF] found in 65 percent of all executions the murder victim was white. However, overall only 43 percent of all victims are white. In addition, murderers of white females are six times more likely to be executed than those who kill black males.
Just four counties, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Lucas and Summit, are responsible half of all executions. There are 69 of 88 counties where no one has been executed.
Hamilton County’s execution rate is almost nine times that of Franklin County.
Of course, Connecticut has its own racial and geographic disparity in the death penalty, an issue that was highlighted in a concurring opinion [PDF] in the case that (for now) ended the state’s death penalty.