Law Commons^™

The Paradox Of Death Penalty Delay: A Judicial, Empirical, And Ethical Study, Zoë Gill

Senior Theses and Projects

The American death penalty has been at the center of political debates for decades. More specifically, the complexity of death penalty delay has gained significant attention from the public as well as the Supreme Court justices. Death penalty delay represents the time that transpires between when a capital crime is committed and when the execution is carried out. Today, more than half of all prisoners currently sentenced to death have been on death row for more than 18 years. This staggering statistic has ignited debate and divided the conservative justices from the liberal justices even more. This thesis will first …

Inducing Empathy In Jurors In A Capital Penalty Phase Trial: An Examination Of How To Reduce Jurors' Death Sentence Decisions, Klaudia Zuraw

Student Theses

The present research explores whether inducing empathy in death-qualified mock jurors leads to fewer death sentences in a penalty phase trial. Previous research has shown that inducing empathy in jurors leads to lesser sentences and perceived responsibility of the perpetrator for the crime. However, none of this research has examined death penalty cases, and most have focused on instances where the victim was also the perpetrator of a separate crime against the defendant (e.g., abuse). Extending this line of research, the present study examines whether these results extend to instances where the perpetrator and victim are strangers. Additionally, considering the …

Against The Death Penalty, Charles Jessup

Student Research Submissions

My thesis is an argument against the death penalty. Given that public support for the death penalty in America is at a half-century low (according to the Pew Research Center), the timing could not be more appropriate to examine the death penalty. This research project had a two-step approach: first, ethical theory-based arguments for and against the death penalty were examined. Following that ethical theory-based examination, real-world statistics were applied to these theories to test where they stand in modern society. The findings contained in this research project point to a clear reality that the death penalty in America is …

Deterrence And The Death Penalty: A Study Of The Effects Of Capital Punishment On Homicide, Jacob Stump

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The death penalty receives an abundance of criticism within the United States, as critics argue it to be cruel and an unjust form of punishment. As the debate carries on and more states illegalize the death penalty, the largest point of contention centers on the question: to what extent does the death penalty deter homicides from occurring? This analysis is critical to the implementation of the death penalty, as many legal scholars cite its ability to deter to be its strongest argument for persisting. Ultimately, any argument that undermines this theory provides a greater incentive for abolition, as the death …

Life Without Parole Is Replacing The Death Penalty -- But For Those Who Don’T Have The Possibility Of Parole, Their Future Is Bleak., Jessica Lerner

Capstones

Across the country, life sentences are increasingly being used to replace the death penalty, according to a recent study by The Sentencing Project. Nearly 162,000 people are serving life sentences – one out of every nine in prison, the study found – and for those like Darrell Powell, who don’t have the possibility of parole, their future is bleak.

https://jlerner.exposure.co/life-without-parole-is-replacing-the-death-penalty?source=share-jlerner

The Death Penalty In Mississippi: An Analysis Of Its History, Current Inmates, And Counties, Haley Kuhnert

Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes uses and prevalence of the death penalty in Mississippi through an analysis of the history, inmates and counties. To gather this information, I looked at the patterns of use throughout the history of Mississippi’s death penalty, the facts of all thirty-nine inmate’s cases, and the demographics of every county that has sentenced someone to death. The main findings are that the death penalty is applied arbitrarily between inmates because even cases with similar underlying felonies have different factual backgrounds that make them more or less heinous. A minority of counties have sentenced people to death. The majority …

Official Misconduct And Error Correction Mechanisms In Exonerated Death Penalty Cases, Kamali'ilani Theresa Elizabeth Wetherell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

There has been an average of approximately 3.9 death penalty exonerations annually in the United States since 1973 (DPIC, 2021). Wrongful convictions and executions constitute grave and irreversible errors. Studies show official misconduct is one of the leading causes for wrongful convictions and exonerations. Misconduct by police, prosecutors, and judges includes a wide range of behaviors such as coercing confessions, depriving rights to legal counsel, threatening witnesses, and concealing evidence. Operating under the due process model, the adversarial legal system is designed to detect and prevent any procedural violations of defendant’s rights, including official misconduct. Utilizing Packer’s (1964) due process …

The Societal Impact Of Capital Punishment And Its Future Role In Modern Day America, Laurel Lee

Honors Theses

Capital punishment has been a well-established, although extremely controversial, practice throughout American history. It has been the subject of much criticism and debate both nationally and globally, dating back to ancient times. This study intends to research the historical, legal, and social changes of capital punishment in the United States that have occurred since the dawn of the practice in order to detect any trends, and if so, whether these trends allow a realistic prediction of the future of capital punishment. The chronology of capital punishment is first examined in this study in order to indicate that the controversy surrounding …

A Content Analysis Of Media Accounts Of Death Penalty And Life Without Parole Cases, Lisa R. Kirk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study analyzed a convenience sample of published accounts of death penalty cases and life without parole cases. The objective of the study was to explore factors that influence the selection of cases for coverage in books, think tank reports (e.g., Heritage Foundation), and periodicals and factors related to coverage of homicides resulting in a death penalty sentence or a life without parole sentence (often termed “America’s other death penalty”).

Since this study was exploratory, hypotheses were not offered. However, prior research on the death penalty and on life without parole offered several clues. For example, since black offender/white victim …

Reforming The Death Penalty In Egypt: An Islamic Law Perspective, Gaber Mohamed

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

The main goal of this thesis is to reform the imposition of the death penalty in the Egyptian legal system through the tools and theories of Islamic law. This subject will be discussed in three main chapters: The first chapter will be a survey of the current application of the death penalty in the Egyptian legal system, including the death penalty’s history, laws, courts, appeals, legal procedures, and general comments on the current application of the penalty. The second chapter will be about the death penalty in Islamic law – including the sources of Islamic law, the crimes that merit …

Evolving Standards Of Decency: The Intersection Of Death Penalty Theory And Supreme Court Jurisprudence, Rachel S. Sullivan

Senior Independent Study Theses

The American death penalty must be abolished in order to establish a more just system of punishment. This thesis examines the arguments of eight political theorists and their connections with five essential Supreme Court cases on capital punishment in order to determine the Court's theoretical view of the American death penalty. This theoretical view is that justices who affirm the constitutionality of capital punishment use philosophical theories, while justices who critique capital punishment rely upon context-dependent analyses. If the Court ever rules that capital punishment is unconstitutional in all circumstances, these latter theories will be dispositive.

A Historical Comparative Analysis Of Executions In The United States From 1608 To 2009, Emily Jean Abili

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The death penalty has been a contested issue throughout American history. The United States has been executing offenders since Jamestown became a colony in 1608 (Allen & Clubb, 2008). Since that time, many issues have been raised about the death penalty including whether or not it is moral, discriminatory, or a deterrent.

This study examines the history of executions, including lynchings, in the United States from 1608 to 2009 using a variety of sociological theories on law and society. Some of the research questions that guide this project are:

* What is the nature of change in the relative prevalence …