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Implicit Bias And Capital Decision-Making: Using Narrative To Counter Prejudicial Psychiatric Labels, Sean O'Brien, Kathleen Wayland
Implicit Bias And Capital Decision-Making: Using Narrative To Counter Prejudicial Psychiatric Labels, Sean O'Brien, Kathleen Wayland
Faculty Works
Overreliance on psychiatric diagnostic labels in the defense of death penalty cases risks triggering prejudicial associations in the minds of decision-makers. This article emphasizes the importance of developing a mitigating counter-narrative of the defendant’s life story, based on an extensive longitudinal and developmental investigation of the defendant and his family’s life trajectory. It is the client’s life story, not diagnostic labels, that reveals his humanity. Cognitive psychology provides a useful framework for explaining human perceptions, and how implicit or explicit biases can interfere with the objective interpretation of data in ways that affect judgment and behavior.
Documentation, Documentary, And The Law: What Should Be Made Of Victim Impact Videos?, Regina Austin
Documentation, Documentary, And The Law: What Should Be Made Of Victim Impact Videos?, Regina Austin
All Faculty Scholarship
Since the Supreme Court sanctioned the introduction of victim impact evidence in the sentencing phase of capital cases in Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U.S. 808 (1991), there have been a number of reported decisions in which that evidence has taken the form of videos composed of home-produced still photographs and moving images of the victim. Most of these videos were first shown at funerals or memorial services and contain music appropriate for such occasions. This article considers the probative value of victim impact videos and responds to the call of Justice John Paul Stevens, made in a statement regarding the …