Capital Punishment Project American Civil Liberties Union stated approximately 35% of those executed since 1976 have been black, even though blacks constitute only 12% of the population. The odds of receiving a death sentence are nearly four times higher if the defendant is black than if he or she is white. Dow. R. D said in New York Times a week after the 35th anniversary of the return of American death penalty that it remains ‘as racist and as random as ever’.