Since 1976, there have been 1,434 executions in the United States, and of those executions since 1973, 156 of those sentenced to death have been exonerated (Facts About the Death Penalty, 2016). In 2012, the National Research Council released a report titled Deterrence and the Death Penalty, citing studies claiming there was a correlation between the death penalty and lower homicide rates. However, this is not true: the death penalty has no effect on crime, including homicide rates. Furthermore, policymakers are negligent in relying on such reasoning in determining whether to retain the death penalty for a wide variety of capital crimes. Separate studies conducted between 1993 and 2014 reveal that there is racial bias that results in black defendants receiving the death penalty more often when the victim is white, than vice versa. Given the racial stereotypes surrounding African Americans regarding drugs, and the now notorious and baseless "war on drugs," subjecting those who traffic large quantities of drugs to the death penalty would be a gross abuse of the justice system with its variety of