Changing public opinion and high costs have death sentences in decline in America. Professor Frank Baumgartner explains that when they do happen, race, mental illness, and even location predict who is sentenced and executed — not just the crime.   For More on This Topic: Check out his research on state’s death penalty system discussed in the Louisiana Weekly. See the latest from the death penalty debate in the New York Times’ article on the Arkansas executions.   Further Reading: Children of Imprisoned Parents and the Future of Inequality in the United States, Sara Wakefield, Rutgers University, Christopher Wildeman, Cornell University The Troubling Fate of Aged Prisoners on Death Row, Elizabeth Rapaport, University of New Mexico School of Law