NCJ Number
206355
Date Published
July 2004
Length
315 pages
Annotation
This document, prepared by the National Academies, contains a collection of working papers presented at the Committee on Law and Justice’s seminar on the death penalty, convened on July 9, 2004.
Abstract
Following the seminar’s agenda, the Committee rosters, and the presenter biographical sketches, a series of eight working papers concerning capital punishment are presented. The first paper examines America’s changing views on capital punishment since the turn of the century. The authors describe the factors that have converged to decrease support for capital punishment since the turn of the century. The second paper reviews early and current research on whether capital punishment deters crime. Current economics research has revealed a strong deterrent effect of capital punishment; economists have indicated that between 3 and 18 murders are deterred with each execution. The third paper examines the types of murders deterred by capital punishment and the effect the length of death-row wait has on deterrence. Findings revealed that each execution deters, on average, three murders. This finding was true of crimes of passion as well as murders committed by intimate partners. However, the longer the duration of waits on death row, the weaker the deterrent effect grew. The fourth paper examines the methodological and analytical problems of research exploring the deterrent effect of capital punishment. The author concludes that the available data are insufficient to be able to determine the deterrent impact of capital punishment. The fifth paper examines the legal mechanisms of capital punishment in Maryland and explores charges that its imposition is discriminatory. Findings reveal that prosecutorial discretion is responsible for much of the discriminatory application of capital punishment in Maryland. The sixth paper examines the effects of social context on support for capital punishment. Findings indicate that residents of areas with high homicide rates, a large proportion of Blacks, and a conservative political climate are significantly more likely to support the death penalty. The seventh paper describes two distinct methodological approaches for examining racial disparity in the imposition of capital punishment: a multiple regression method and a sorting method. The eighth paper examines the overall patterns of exonerations in the United States between 1989 and 2003. Findings indicate that 97 percent of exonerations were for the crimes of murder and rape, mainly due to the use of DNA technology. Footnotes, endnotes, tables, figures, references, appendix