"The death penalty in the South has roots in lynching," says University of Virginia law professor and author Brandon Garrett. In a video interview at Salon, Garrett says "there's a long, ugly history of racial bias in the American death penalty." Garrett's latest book is "End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice." In it, Garrett explains what led to the decline of the death penalty, and how reforms could one day bring it to an end. Read more in this article at Salon.