Bias in Nevada's death penalty
The death penalty reflects the biases of our criminal legal system. The adjudication of the death penalty is plagued with biases against people of color, especially Black individuals, those with mental illness, severe intellectual disability, past traumas or abuse and the indigent.
Race
Roughly 40% of the people on Nevada's death row are Black, despite only accounting for 10% of the total state population. In 96% of states where there have been reviews of race and the death penalty, there was a pattern of either race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination, or both.
Economic
All of the people currently on Nevada's death row were indigent and unable to afford legal representation of their choosing.
Mental Illness
Roughly 25% of the people on Nevada's death row have severe mental illness, intellectual disability or brain damage.
Geographic Bias
Clark County was the third most active death penalty county in the United States between 2010 and 2015 and 4th most active between 2016 and 2020. With over 60 pending capital cases (7/2021) in Clark County right now, a death sentence is more than 10 times more likely to be sought in Clark County than anywhere else in the state.