NCJ Number
119524
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 13 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1989) Pages: 185-215
Date Published
1989
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study examines the correlation between attitudes toward the death penalty and conviction-process known as death qualification.
Abstract
Death qualification is a process which occurs during jury selection and eliminates those potential jurors with views considered incompatible for cases where the jury will have to decide if the death penalty should be imposed. Critics of death qualification charge that the issue of guilt and innocence is decided exclusively by jurors who have stated a willingness to impose a death sentence, and therefore are more conviction prone than those jurors who are excluded from the selection. The article discusses the effect of Witt and McCree on constitutional litigation concerning death qualification, focusing particularly on the role of social science in that litigation, the court's treatment of social science, the future of social science in litigation on death qualification, and new standards of death qualification. 157 references.