We need a lot more people like Rick in the General Assembly. This is a fabulous opinion piece ... well worth your while.

A defendant bears a heavy burden to prove discrimination, but in the rare case that burden is met, a life sentence without parole will be imposed in lieu of a death sentence. No one, least of all the memory of the victim, is served by executing a citizen on the basis of skin color. Defendants may file frivolous cases - and they should be quickly dismissed for what they are - but the fact that many cases may be meritless hardly justifies refusing to consider those that are not. We are better than that as a civilized people.

Statistical evidence is used on a daily basis in courts throughout this country to determine civil law issues of discrimination. If it is acceptable to do so in those settings, it is impossible to see how the same evidence is invalid in a criminal case where a life is at stake.