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Comment by swatthatfly | Hacker News Reader

Can anybody explain why the Race column is stil there? What is the relevancy of this statistic? Why not sex, or religion?

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Because a disproportionate number of people sentenced to death are non-white.

From the data:

  White    231 (44.9%)
  Black    190 (36.9%)
  Hispanic  92 (17.9%)
  Other      2 (0.4%)

As of the 2010 US Census, the racial distribution in Texas was as follows: 70.4% of the population of Texas was White American; 11.8% African American; 3.8%, Asian American; 0.7%, American Indian; 0.1%, native Hawaiian or Pacific islander only; 10.5% of the population were of some other race only; and 2.7% were of two or more races. Hispanics (of any race) were 37.6% of the population of the state, while Non-Hispanic Whites composed 45.3% [0]

The Hispanic portion is difficult to parse, but it certainly seems that African-Americans are very over-represented.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Texas#Racial_an...

Just to clarify: you're providing this data to support the assertion you're replying to, right? Since 36.9% is about triple the proportion of African-Americans among US citizens in general? (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Stat...)

It's also the case that a disproportionate number are male.

alternatively, a disproportionate number of people who can afford competent legal representation are white.

Relevancy: Many people believe that minorities are disproportionately sentenced to death.

Then why would the Texas Department of Justice want to draw attention to that?

Because in politics the cover up is often more damaging than the initial transgression? Because the state does not feel that they have done anything wrong and therefore has nothing to gain by appearing to hide information from the public?

Or because there is nothing to hide?

From the data:

  White    231 (44.9%)
  Black    190 (36.9%)
  Hispanic  92 (17.9%)
  Other      2 (0.4%)

So the proportion of black Texan executionees being three times higher than the proportion of Black Texans isn't in any way noteworthy?

Aren't blacked extremely over-represented in that list?

No Asian person has been executed?

I think Asian is included under other.

How do you start from a table that lists percentages that are completely out of line with the percentages in the general population, and turn that into "there is nothing to hide"?

...because it's not.

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