Capital Punishment: The Effect on Jurors' Affect

• In Event: Convict Criminology Session 5: The Politics of Punishment

Abstract

The jury plays a central but controversial role in the American legal system. It's praised by many as a bulwark of freedom and democracy. It has been proposed that jurors may decide their verdict based on emotion, as opposed to the evidence presented during the trial and judicial instruction. The present study analyzes the influence of jurors’ emotion in determining punishment in capital cases, as with the level of brutality associated with the crime, victim suffering, and defendant empathy. Further, the influence of race and gender will be explored. In-depth interviews were conducted with actual capital jurors in Pennsylvania, as part of the Capital Jury Project.

Author

• Stephanie Lynn Albertson, Indiana University, Southeast