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So far this year, 15 people have been executed in the United States. More than half of them were Black men; nearly all of them were put to death in Florida, Oklahoma, or Texas. Last year, the number of executions was 47, the largest number in 16 years. Fifteen of them were people of color: 14 Black people and one Hispanic person.

Fifty years after the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty as constitutionally permissible after a brief ban, these figures are a reminder that executions still play a role in American life. If the Trump administration gets its way, they will play an even bigger role. Capital punishment may be “alive” in the United States, but it is not well.

The death penalty system is rife with miscarriages of justice, racial discrimination, execution failures, and arbitrariness from beginning to end. None of this is news, but on the 50th anniversary of the death penalty’s reinstatement in the United States, it is worth reflecting on why those problems persist.

The death penalty returned after a brief period of suspension when the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Gregg v. Georgia on July 2, 1976. Gregg said that death sentences and executions could resume because the court was satisfied that the penalty could be administered in a way that guaranteed that capital defendants would be treated fairly and equally.

The court’s decision in Gregg was an exercise in smoke and mirrors and wishful thinking. Fifty years of constitutional fiction is enough. It is time to face the fact that Gregg failed to put the death penalty on a sound footing and that nothing can........

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