Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Knowledge Gain On Capital Punishment: A Partial Test Of The Marshall Hypothesis, Alexander Able Savon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Justice Thurgood Marshall proposed a three-pronged postulate in his dissent in1972 in the Furman v. Georgia (408 U.S. 238) Supreme Court case. The American public is generally uninformed when it comes to the death penalty, and given information a "great mass of citizens" would be against it, unless their underlying beliefs were rootedin retribution (Furman v. Georgia, p. 363). These statements subsequently came to be known as the Marshall Hypothesis, and were deemed testable by researchers.

This study examines the influence on death penalty opinion as a consequence of participating in a college class on the death penalty. …

The Impact Of Victim-Offender Familial Relationships On Capital Sentencing Outcomes, Katharine D. Evans

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is an investigation of whether familial relationships among offenders and their victims affect capital sentencing. Using a sample of capital cases from North Carolina restricted to familial homicides, logistic regression models are used while controlling for legal and extra-legal factors that influence decision outcomes. Such models of capital sentencing are developed to (1) determine whether familial-victim cases have unique correlates; and (2) whether there are variations in the effects of these correlates across gender. Contradictory to these hypotheses, results suggest that acquaintance and stranger relationships are less likely to receive a capital outcome when compared to familial relationships. …

The Interaction Between Victim Race And Gender On Capital Sentencing Outcomes: An Exploration Of Previous Research, Amy Reckdenwald

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is an exploration and extension of previous research on the interactive effects of victim-race and victim-gender on death sentence outcomes. Williams and Holcomb's (2004) study suggests that an interactive effect exists between victim-race and victim-gender on Ohio death sentencing outcomes, such that killers of White women are especially singled out for capital punishment. The current study analyzes a sample of death eligible cases at the trial level in North Carolina to determine if Williams & Holcomb's findings hold up for a different sample of cases and in a different state. Logistic regression is used to determine if there …