Predictions of death sentence outcomes in the post-Furman era: Gender *still* matters

• In Event: Death Sentences and Executions in the U.S., Past and Present

Abstract

Accounting for the effect of gender on death penalty outcomes has alluded researchers for reasons that are not entirely statistical. The chivalry hypothesis, a general disinterest in women on death row, combined with statistical analyses that do not allow for adequate comparisons have hampered scientific analysis. This research takes a novel approach by identifying the place and year of the 177 women (re)sentenced to death from 1972 to 2021 and identifying comparison cases for men sentenced in those jurisdictions. The variables collected account for the characteristics of the crime, the characteristics of the victims, as well as defendant demographics. The resulting fate of these men and women (e.g., executions, exonerations, commutations, resentencing) is predicated upon case variables with the expectation being that gender will illustrate its predictive power, regardless of case circumstances. While women's crimes will differ from those of men's, also explored in this paper, the defendant's gender is expected to be a significant role in determining case outcomes.

Author

• Corina Schulze, University of South Alabama