Amnesty International, which opposes capital punishment in all circumstances, said the use of the death penalty in the United States appears arbitrary and biased against blacks and Hispanics.
In a 268-page worldwide report titled "When the State Kills," the human rights group condemned the use of the death penalty as a "judicial lottery" that does not deter crime.The United States and 99 other countries execute people for crimes.
"Despite a range of safeguards, the use of the death penalty in the USA appears to be arbitrary and racially biased," Amnesty International said in the report's introduction.
The London-based group, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977, criticized America for executing convicts for crimes committed when they were juveniles.
In June 1988, 30 prisoners in 14 states were under sentence of death for crimes committed when they were under age 18. This is permitted by 25 states, the report said.
As of May 1988, 2,048 prisoners were under the death sentence in 35 states, according to the report. Ninety-eight prisoners were executed from 1977 to May 31, 1988, including three juveniles, two in Texas and one in South Carolina.
The report mentioned the case of James Terry Roach. He pleaded guilty in 1977 when he was 17 to two murders, sexual assault, kidnapping and other charges and was executed in South Carolina on Jan. 10, 1986.
Amnesty said there are regional disparities in the numbers of death sentences. Four states - Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas - have accounted for more than three-quarters of all executions since 1977, the report said.
Blacks comprise 12 percent of the national population but 41 percent of prisoners under sentence of death, the report said.