Claude Jones, Kerry Dixon, and Timothy Jordan were all linked to the murder of liquor store owner Allen Hilzendager in 1989. Jones was seen with another man pulling into the liquor store; one left the car and shot the owner. Witnesses who were standing across the road couldn't see the killer. Dixon and Jordan both testified that Jones was the shooter although Jones claimed to never enter the store, so they were both spared the death penalty. The deciding piece of evidence was a strand of hair found at the scene of the crime. Although the forensic technology was underdeveloped at the time, a forensic expert testified that the strand was Jones'. All courts and former Texas Governor George W. Bush denied Jones and testing of the DNA of the strand of hair and he was executed in 2000. In 2007, the Innocent Project and the Texas Observer filed a lawsuit to retrieve the strand of hair and had it tested, resulting in the hair being the victim's. They proved that Texas had executed an innocent man. This is just one of many stories proving wrongdoings of capital …show more content…
There is an unfortunate amount of racism when it comes to deciding the fate of these individuals. African-Americans take up about 12% of the U.S. population, but they are about half of the prisoners in the death row. There is a natural bias towards the white community. There are statistics that show the likelihood of being sentenced to die is three times more likely if you kill a white person instead of an African-American and four times more likely if you kill a white person instead of a Latino. In California, death rate by homicide rate is very high. African-Americans are six times more likely to be murdered than whites. 27.6% of murder victims are white, but 80% of people executed in California were convicted because of killings whites. Capital punishment has brought out the racism in America and has targeted races ever since