The issue and main question I plan to focus my issue brief on is “How has capital punishment in the south disproportionally impacted black Americans?” It is an intervention into a policy discussion regarding capital punishment. The implementation and use of capital punishment have been widely debated in the United States on the basis of morality and cost efficiency, however, I plan on intervening into the discussion and focusing on how capital punishment has a history of racism.

I will begin by discussing the exigence and rhetorical situation by referencing “Just Mercy,” and its story of how Bryan Stevenson is impacting the effects of capital punishment. I will explain how he noticed the deep-rooted ties to racism in the death penalty, as well as how his creation of The Equal Justice Initiative has brought awareness and change to this issue. I will also provide my own research and statistics that provide evidence that the death penalty has been disproportionately used against black Americans, especially in the South.

I will argue that the disproportionate impact of capital punishment on black prisoners is caused intentionally by Americans who are continuing the history of lynching and violence against Black Americans, especially in the South. Although racial bias may be unconscious sometimes, the issue of capital punishment is still intentional since the perpetrators are aware of their unfair treatment towards black Americans.

I will likely either discuss the policy instruments of capacity builders or system changers to craft the policy in my issue brief. Since racism is an issue that deals with attitudes, norms, and culture, the capacity building instrument would be used to help alter attitudes and educate the public. This tool for policy change can take the form of programs, announcements, and educational workshops. All of these tactics can bring awareness to the issue of how black Americans are being mistreated in the punishment system, especially when it comes to the use of the death penalty. It is important to open more peoples’ eyes to this issue. Furthermore, the actors that help implement these policy changes include nonprofit organizations, government programs, and philanthropies. If my policy will be focused on spreading information and changing attitudes, capacity builders can be a good instrument to incorporate into my issue guide.

In addition, the instrument of system change could also be a possible tool to implement into my issue guide. It may be effective to observe the police and court systems in which the death penalty is being ruled unfairly against black Americans and make a change to these systems. System change is a dramatic form of policy instrument since it gets to the heart of the policy issue, and it can restructure how and who makes the policy decisions in general. The challenge with implementing the dramatic instrument of system change is gathering the necessary support. Work would need to be done to educate and convince the public that the issue of capital punishment needs to be addressed in terms of its racial implementations.