NCJ Number
144410
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 17 Issue: 4 Dated: (August 1993) Pages: 471- 477
Date Published
1993
Length
7 pages
Annotation
A sample of 602 students participated in a study designed to assess their tendencies, as potential jurors, to impose the death sentence in murder cases, presented in five vignettes.
Abstract
One hundred nine subjects were classified as excludable, based on their earlier contention that they would be opposed to the death penalty in all cases but would fairly follow the judge's instructions. After viewing the vignettes, only 39.4 percent of this subsample responded that they would never impose the death penalty; the remaining 60.6 percent would vote for the death penalty in at least one case. Indeed, over 49 percent of the excludables were willing to impose the death penalty even against the wishes of the other jurors and 5.5 percent said they would impose it in all five cases. Only 1.1 percent of excludables refused to consider the death penalty in any of the cases. The results demonstrate that excluding death penalty opponents from capital trials does not eliminate those individuals who would be unable to function as jurors but does lower the jury's threshold for the imposition of the death penalty. 2 notes and 16 references