Proponents of the death penalty assume a system in which the penalty is inflicted on the most reprehensible criminals and is meted out enough both to deter and to perform the moral and utilitarian functions ascribed to retribution. However, this idealized system is not the American system of capital punishment. In reality, the death penalty has been inflicted only rarely and erratically since at least 1967. In addition, it is often inflicted on the least odious killers, but not on many of the most heinous criminals. Moreover, it has been used almost exclusively in a few formerly slaveholding States, where it has been used almost exclusively against killers of whites, not blacks, and never against white killers of blacks. Any national debate on the death penalty must defend this system, not an idealized one. Public opinion polls and State governments have both shown support for the death penalty, and the U.S. Supreme Court is unlikely to declare it unconstitutional in all its forms. However, if the way it works does not change materially, at some point the Court will declare the overall system to be cruel and unusual. In the meantime, the moral issue of whether it is right to kill death row inmates must be considered. 46 footnotes. (Author summary modified)