Back to Search
Start Over
When domestic goes capital: Juror decision making in capital murder trials involving domestic homicide.
- Source :
-
Law and human behavior [Law Hum Behav] 2015 Aug; Vol. 39 (4), pp. 402-15. Date of Electronic Publication: 2015 Apr 06. - Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- Prior research suggests that homicide cases involving familial offenders and victims are subject to a "domestic discount" that reduces sentencing severity. However, the operation of a domestic discount in regard to death penalty sentencing has been rarely examined. The current research uses a near-population of jury decisions in capital murder trials conducted in North Carolina from 1991 to 2009 (n = 800), and a series of logistic regression analyses to determine whether there is (a) a direct effect between offender-victim relationship (e.g., domestic, friend/acquaintance, and stranger) and jury decision making, and/or (b) whether domestic offender-victim relationship (as well as other offender-victim relationships) moderates the effect of legal and extralegal case characteristics on jury assessment of the death penalty. Our findings revealed no empirical support for a "domestic discount" whereby juries are less likely to impose death sentences in cases involving domestic homicides. However, substantial differences in predictors of death sentencing were found across offender-victim dyads; most notably, domestic homicide cases demonstrated the most legalistic model of jury decisions to impose death sentences.<br /> ((c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).)
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1573-661X
- Volume :
- 39
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Law and human behavior
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 25844513
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000129