Capital trials: individualized sentences and generalized biases

Capital trials differ from all other adult criminal legal proceedings in the United States. While most criminal sentencing occurs without consideration of defendants’ personal circumstances, the US Supreme Court mandates that jurors consider capital defendants’ backgrounds to decide whether they des...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kaufman, Sarah Beth (Author)
Format: Print Article
Language:English
Published: 2024
In: The Elgar companion to capital punishment and society
Year: 2024, Pages: 89-102
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Keywords:
Capital trials
death penalty
Capital juries
Death qualification
Capital Sentencing
Description
Summary:Capital trials differ from all other adult criminal legal proceedings in the United States. While most criminal sentencing occurs without consideration of defendants’ personal circumstances, the US Supreme Court mandates that jurors consider capital defendants’ backgrounds to decide whether they deserve to be executed for their crimes. This chapter describes how capital trials are conducted, given this mandate. The chapter describes the four main parts of capital trials: picking “death qualified” jurors; narrating defendants’ childhoods; predicting defendants’ future acts; and hearing from victims’ supporters. The chapter then demonstrates that despite this “super due process,” as scholars call it, research continues to demonstrate that capital sentencing is saturated with the racialized, gendered, and class biases familiar to criminal legal proceedings throughout the US justice system.
Item Description:Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 99-102
ISBN:9781803929149
DOI:10.4337/9781803929156.00014