Juries Hearing Death Penalty Cases: Statistical Analysis of a Legal Procedure

Abstract

Potential jurors in capital cases are often queried on their attitudes toward capital punishment. The extreme groups say they would never or they would always approve capital punishment, given a guilty verdict. In many jurisdictions, these two groups are routinely excluded from juries deciding whether the defendant is guilty in capital cases. This exclusion persists even when the potential jurors say they could be fair and impartial in deciding guilt or innocence. The current study shows that this exclusion creates a bias that almost certainly works against the defendant.