NCJ Number
139358
Date Published
1991
Length
314 pages
Annotation
This final report describes the research undertaken by the Special Master for Proportionality Review with respect to proportionality review of death sentences in New Jersey, presents finding of fact on the operation of New Jersey's capital charging and sentencing system since 1982, and presents recommendations for the establishment of a system of comparative proportionality review in New Jersey.
Abstract
One project goal was to conduct a census of New Jersey homicide cases and identify those defendants who were death- eligible under the New Jersey capital-sentencing statute. A second task was to develop a machine-readable database of these cases that could be used by the researchers to develop and refine measures of defendant culpability and evaluate the evenhandedness and consistency of the State's capital sentencing system. The third task was to develop measures of defendant culpability that will assist the court in identifying death-eligible cases that are similar with respect to crime elements and defendant culpability. The fourth task was to recommend approaches to proportionality review, including the basic universe of cases that the court should routinely consider in its reviews. The final task was to recommend an ongoing system of contemporaneous data collection at the trial court level, as well as data management and analysis in the Administrative Office of the Courts. The fulfillment of these tasks is described in this report. Appended extensive tables and forms used in and derived from the project