| Abstrakt: |
This article reports a study on the effects of lost/rejected aggravators and mitigators on capital sentencing outcomes in North Carolina. The analysis examined whether or not, and if so, the degree to which, capital juries' rejection of one or more submitted aggravating or mitigating circumstances affected the odds of death sentence outcomes, and the degree to which the rejection of those sentencing factors may dilute the aggravating or mitigatory effect of accepted factors on the odds of a death sentence. In addition, the issue of racial invariance on these effects was also assessed. The database consisted of approximately 95% of the cases (n=805) involving Black or White defendants and victims that reached the capital sentencing stage in North Carolina between April 1, 1990 and December 31, 2004. The results confirmed that rejection of an aggravator reduces the odds of a death sentence 60%-75% on a per rejected factor basis, and dilutes the effect of the number of aggravators accepted on the odds of a death sentence by approximately 1 percentage point. Similarly, rejection of mitigators increases the odds of a death sentence by approximately 10% per mitigator rejected, and dilutes the mitigatory effect of the number of accepted mitigators by about 4-6%. Moreover, these effects were not racially invariant; Black defendants enjoyed a slightly higher advantage from rejected aggravators than White defendants, and White defendants were also slightly more disadvantaged in terms of how much each rejected mitigator increased the odds of death. It is posited that these differences in effects may reflect the relatively lower jury credibility with which Black defendants and their defense start a capital sentencing proceeding ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
