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An Empirical Evaluation Of The Connecticut Death Penalty System Since 1973: Are There Unlawful Racial, Gender, And Geographic Disparities?, John J. Donohue Dec 2014

An Empirical Evaluation Of The Connecticut Death Penalty System Since 1973: Are There Unlawful Racial, Gender, And Geographic Disparities?, John J. Donohue

John Donohue

This article analyzes the 205 death-eligible murders leading to homicide convictions in Connecticut from 1973–2007 to determine if discriminatory and arbitrary factors influenced capital outcomes. A regression analysis controlling for an array of legitimate factors relevant to the crime, defendant, and victim provides overwhelming evidence that minority defendants who kill white victims are capitally charged at substantially higher rates than minority defendants who kill minorities, that geography influences both capital charging and sentencing decisions (with the location of a crime in Waterbury being the single most potent influence on which death-eligible cases will lead to a sentence of death), and …


An Empirical Evaluation Of The Connecticut Death Penalty System Since 1973: Are There Unlawful Racial, Gender, And Geographic Disparities?, John J. Donohue Dec 2014

An Empirical Evaluation Of The Connecticut Death Penalty System Since 1973: Are There Unlawful Racial, Gender, And Geographic Disparities?, John J. Donohue

John Donohue

This article analyzes the 205 death-eligible murders leading to homicide convictions in Connecticut from 1973–2007 to determine if discriminatory and arbitrary factors influenced capital outcomes. A regression analysis controlling for an array of legitimate factors relevant to the crime, defendant, and victim provides overwhelming evidence that minority defendants who kill white victims are capitally charged at substantially higher rates than minority defendants who kill minorities, that geography influences both capital charging and sentencing decisions (with the location of a crime in Waterbury being the single most potent influence on which death-eligible cases will lead to a sentence of death), and …


Capital Punishment In Connecticut, 1973-2007: A Comprehensive Evaluation From 4686 Murders To One Execution, John J. Donohue Feb 2013

Capital Punishment In Connecticut, 1973-2007: A Comprehensive Evaluation From 4686 Murders To One Execution, John J. Donohue

John Donohue

This study explores and evaluates the application of the death penalty in Connecticut from 1973 until 2007, a period during which 4686 murders were committed in the state. The objective is to assess whether the system operates lawfully and reasonably or is marred by arbitrariness, caprice, or discrimination. My empirical approach has three components. First, I provide background information on the overall numbers of murders, death sentences, and executions in Connecticut. The extreme infrequency with which the death penalty is administered in Connecticut raises a serious question as to whether the state’s death penalty regime is serving any legitimate social …


Substance Vs. Sideshows In The More Guns, Less Crime Debate: A Comment On Moody, Lott, And Marvell, John J. Donohue Jan 2013

Substance Vs. Sideshows In The More Guns, Less Crime Debate: A Comment On Moody, Lott, And Marvell, John J. Donohue

John Donohue

We are grateful to authors Carlisle Moody, John Lott, and Thomas Marvell (hereafter MLM) for their close attention to our article “The Impact of Right-to- Carry Laws and the NRC Report: Lessons for the Empirical Evaluation of Law and Policy,” which was published in the American Law and Economics Review (Aneja, Donohue, and Zhang 2011), and then re-issued as a National Bureau of EconomicResearch working paper with some substantively unimportant errors corrected (Aneja, Donohue, and Zhang 2012). (Henceforth, we too will use the abbreviation ADZ to refer to our jointly authored work.) We think the attention to this work is …


The Impact Of Right-To-Carry Laws And The Nrc Report: Lessons For The Empirical Evaluation Of Law And Policy, John J. Donohue Jan 2011

The Impact Of Right-To-Carry Laws And The Nrc Report: Lessons For The Empirical Evaluation Of Law And Policy, John J. Donohue

John Donohue

For over a decade, there has been a spirited academic debate over the impact on crime of laws that grant citizens the presumptive right to carry concealed handguns in public— so-called right-to-carry (RTC) laws. In 2005, the National Research Council (NRC) offered a critical evaluation of the ‘‘more guns, less crime’’ hypothesis using county-level crime data for the period 1977–2000. Seventeen of the eighteen NRC panel members essentially concluded that the existing research was inadequate to conclude that RTC laws increased or decreased crime. The final member of the panel, though, concluded that the NRC_s panel data regressions supported the …


The Impact Of Right To Carry Laws And The Nrc Report: The Latest Lessons For The Empirical Evaluation Of Law And Policy, John J. Donohue, Abhay Aneja, Alexandria Zhang Jan 2011

The Impact Of Right To Carry Laws And The Nrc Report: The Latest Lessons For The Empirical Evaluation Of Law And Policy, John J. Donohue, Abhay Aneja, Alexandria Zhang

John Donohue

For over a decade, there has been a spirited academic debate over the impact on crime of laws that grant citizens the presumptive right to carry concealed handguns in public – so-called right-to-carry (RTC) laws. In 2004, the National Research Council (NRC) offered a critical evaluation of the “More Guns, Less Crime” hypothesis using county-level crime data for the period 1977-2000. 15 of the 16 academic members of the NRC panel essentially concluded that the existing research was inadequate to conclude that RTC laws increased or decreased crime. One member of the panel thought the NRC's panel data regressions showed …


The Imapct Of Damage Caps On Malpractice Claims: Randomization Inference With Difference-In-Differences, John Donohue, Daniel E. Ho Mar 2007

The Imapct Of Damage Caps On Malpractice Claims: Randomization Inference With Difference-In-Differences, John Donohue, Daniel E. Ho

John Donohue

No abstract provided.


Antidiscrimination Law, John Donohue Jan 2007

Antidiscrimination Law, John Donohue

John Donohue

This essay provides an overview of the central theoretical law and economics insights and empirical findings concerning antidiscrimination law across a variety of contexts including discrimination in labor markets, housing markets, consumer purchases, and policing. The different models of discrimination based on animus, statistical discrimination, and cartel exploitation are analyzed for both race and sex discrimination. I explore the theoretical arguments for prohibiting private discriminatory conduct in light of the tensions that exist between concerns for liberty and equality. I also discuss the complexities in empirically establishing the existence of discrimination and highlight the critical point that one cannot automatically …


Rethink The War On Drugs, John Donohue Jan 2007

Rethink The War On Drugs, John Donohue

John Donohue

No abstract provided.


The Discretion Of Judges And Corporate Executives: An Insider’S View Of The Disney Case, John J. Donohue Oct 2006

The Discretion Of Judges And Corporate Executives: An Insider’S View Of The Disney Case, John J. Donohue

John Donohue

The widely publicized Disney case is perhaps the most important corporate law litigation in many decades. The case illustrates the immense discretion in the hands of trial judges in Delaware Chancery Court to let their passive corporate law ideology determine the outcome even in cases of egregious management neglect. Unfortunately, as managers, not shareholders, are the ones who decide where to incorporate and Delaware—the state of choice—depends on incorporation revenues to feed its coffers, too often this discretion is exercised to protect management at shareholder expense.


The Costs Of Wrongful-Discharge Laws, John Donohue, David Autor, Stewart Schwab May 2006

The Costs Of Wrongful-Discharge Laws, John Donohue, David Autor, Stewart Schwab

John Donohue

Full data and programs behind the published paper are available from: http://econ-www.mit.edu/faculty/dautor/data/autdonschw06


The Impact Of Race On Policing And Arrests, John Donohue, Steven Levitt Oct 2001

The Impact Of Race On Policing And Arrests, John Donohue, Steven Levitt

John Donohue

No abstract provided.


Law And Macroeconomics: Employment Discrimination Litigation Over The Business Cycle, John J. Donohue, Peter Siegelman Jan 1993

Law And Macroeconomics: Employment Discrimination Litigation Over The Business Cycle, John J. Donohue, Peter Siegelman

John Donohue

For the past two decades the law and economics movement has been one of the most influential forces in the legal academy. Its practitioners have relentlessly sought to unleash microeconomic insights on formerly pristine areas of legal doctrine. This Article focuses on a branch of law - employment discrimination-that has already been examined from a microeconomic perspective. However, it represents a departure from the previous literature in that it considers the impact of macroeconomic phenomena on several aspects of employment discrimination litigation.


Advocacy Versus Analysis In Assessing Employment Discrimination Law, John J. Donohue Jul 1992

Advocacy Versus Analysis In Assessing Employment Discrimination Law, John J. Donohue

John Donohue

No abstract provided.


Diverting The Coasean River: Incentive Schemes To Reduce Unemployment Spells, John Donohue Jan 1989

Diverting The Coasean River: Incentive Schemes To Reduce Unemployment Spells, John Donohue

John Donohue

No abstract provided.