NCJ Number
125261
Date Published
1990
Length
698 pages
Annotation
This study uses empirical data to examine factors in capital punishment sentencing during the 15 years of reform between Furman v. Georgia, the 1972 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, and McCleskey v. Kemp (1987).
Abstract
The Furman decision declared arbitrary and discriminatory the death sentences of virtually every State using capital punishment at that time. The heart of this analysis of capital punishment practices since "Furman" consists of two empirical studies of capital sentencing in Georgia between 1873 and 1980. The larger of these two studies reviewed more than 2,400 murder and voluntary-manslaughter cases to assess apparent racial bias in capital sentencing despite the post-Furman reforms. The first of the five parts of the book addresses the Supreme Court's decision in "Furman" and the response of the States to it. The second and third sections explain the study methodology and the empirical findings on the impact of post-Furman reforms on the levels of arbitrariness and discrimination in Georgia's capital sentencing system. The fourth part summarizes the empirical literature on racial discrimination in the pre-Furman and post-Furman death-sentencing systems in other States. It also considers the experience and effectiveness of comparative-proportionality review in other States since Furman. The concluding section describes and assesses the McCleskey case, in which the Supreme Court rejected constitutional claims based on the empirical evidence presented in this book. This study concludes that a Georgia defendant convicted of murdering a white person was more likely to be sentenced to death than if the victim was black. 67 tables, 33 figures, chapter notes, appended supplementary data and material. (Publisher summary modified)