Term
| Background of the death penalty |
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Definition
• Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976 after a short period of suspension. Guidelines were created and approved.
• Where? 32 states, federal government, and military use
• Eligible cases? Aggravated murder. |
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Term
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Definition
• Not a top contender in executions (Texas is the highest)
• Has some of the largest number of death row inmates |
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Term
| Key processes in death penalty trials: jury selection |
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Definition
• "Death Qualified" jury (not opposed to the use of the death sentence)
• "Excludables" or "Automatic Death Penalty" jurors |
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Term
| Key processes in death penalty trials: two-phase trial |
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Definition
• Phase I: Guilt phase
• Phase II: Sentencing phase |
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Term
Sentencing phase of death penalty trials
(What it is, what factors to consider, and what is necessary to sentence to death) |
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Definition
• "Should the defendant be killed in the execution chamber?"
• Everyone has to agree on at least one aggravating factor in order to sentence to death
Factors to consider:
• Aggravating
• Mitigating |
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Term
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Definition
• Facts that argue for death
• i.e. How many times you stabbed them; premeditation |
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Term
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Definition
• Factors that argue for a sentence less than death
• i.e. childhood, mental illness |
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Term
| Research on a death qualified jury: demographic difference |
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Definition
• Male
• White
• Moderately educated
• Politically conservative
• Middle class
• Catholic/Protestant |
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Term
| Research on a death qualified jury: dispositional difference |
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Definition
• Authoritarian
• Have internal locus of control
• Low in need for cognition |
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Term
| Research on a death qualified jury: attitudinal differences |
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Definition
• Weight aggravating circumstances more heavily than mitigating circumstances
• Evaluate ambiguous expert testimony positively
• Susceptible to pre-trial publicity and victim statements |
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Term
| Research on a death qualified jury: process effects |
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Definition
| • Assume the system expects conviction and death sentence |
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Term
| Differences in death qualified juries |
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Definition
| More likely to find defendant guilty and apply death penalty |
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Term
| Research on Phase II of a death penalty trial |
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Definition
• Jurors often misunderstand instructions
(Ex. Believe if there's one aggravating factor, they have to apply the death penalty; think that no death sentence means they'll be eligible for parole)
• Racial disparities (African Americans make 41% of the population on death row) (Race-of-victim effect) |
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Term
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Definition
| Stereotypic characteristics play a role in African Americans being sentenced to death |
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Term
| Eberhardt et al. study on stereotypical racial characteristics and the death penalty |
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Definition
• Procedure: 44 death-eligible cases; task is to determine how "stereotypically black" characteristics of defendants are (lips, nose, skin tone, hair texture)
• Analysis: correlate stereotypical ratings with death sentence outcomes
• Results: Stereotypical black defendants have a higher % of death sentences with white victims; no significant difference in black victims |
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Term
| Impact of research on the death penalty |
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Definition
Supreme Court cases
• Lockhart v. McCree (Research on death qualified jury perceived as valid but dismissed)
• McCleskey v. Kemp (Did not accept reserch on racial disparities in capital trials) |
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Term
| Amendments and the death penalty |
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Definition
• 8th: Prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment"
• 14th: Guarantee of "equal protection" under the law |
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Term
| How many innocent people have been released from death row |
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Definition
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