NCJ Number
179929
Journal
Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: March 1999 Pages: 49-83
Date Published
1999
Length
35 pages
Annotation
New York's death penalty legislation requires prospective jurors to be death-qualified and life-qualified in order to serve in capital trials.
Abstract
Thus, if a person's views about capital punishment would interfere with his or her ability to consider imprisoning both statutory sentencing options of death and life imprisonment without parole (LWOP), the prospective juror is excluded by law from participating in either guilt phase or penalty phase deliberations. In addition, although the law requires jurors to choose between sentences of death and LWOP following a capital murder conviction, it includes a unique provision governing cases in which a jury is unable to achieve a unanimous sentencing verdict: the judge must sentence the defendant to a term of 20 to 25 years to life imprisonment, and the jury is so instructed prior to beginning its deliberations. In 1996 and 1997, trained interviews administered a telephone survey to 180 residents of Albany County, New York, who satisfied general State requirements for jury service to assess individual views about the death penalty. The sample was 82.2 percent white and 63.3 percent female. Survey data clearly showed New York's law provides a powerful inducement for jurors to produce unanimous sentencing verdicts in capital cases. Implications of the survey results for the administration of New York's death penalty law are discussed. 56 references, 9 notes, and 5 tables