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Goals of Punishment

Goals of Punishment. General deterrence Individual deterrence Incapacitation Retribution, justice, “moral outrage” Rehabilitation Restitution. Steps in death penalty sentencing. Jury selection: death qualification process Guilt-determination phase of trial Sentencing phase of trial

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Goals of Punishment

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  1. Goals of Punishment • General deterrence • Individual deterrence • Incapacitation • Retribution, justice, “moral outrage” • Rehabilitation • Restitution

  2. Steps in death penalty sentencing • Jury selection: death qualification process • Guilt-determination phase of trial • Sentencing phase of trial • May be done by judge • May be done by jury • Jury may make recommendation to judge

  3. Death qualification process • Is a death-qualified jury a “fair” jury? • Research suggests that death-qualified juries are more likely to vote guilty in the guilt determination phase of a trial • Supreme Court, however, has ruled that death qualified juries are fair (Lockhart v. McCree, (1986)

  4. Sentencing considerations • Aggravating factors • Murder of a law-enforcement official • Murder after kidnapping • Torture • History of violence • Risk to society • Murder for hire • Murder of two or more people

  5. Sentencing considerations • Mitigating factors • Youth of defendant • Coercion or domination by another • Extreme emotion • Limited understanding • Mental retardation • No prior record

  6. Reasons for Death Penalty Support • General deterrence: no evidence that this works • Individual deterrence: studies suggest that people on death row are no more likely to commit additional acts of violence than other prisoners • Retribution: seems to be major reason for death penalty support

  7. Convictions of the innocent • Law enforcement officials estimate that only 1% of people convicted of felonies are actually innocent • In Illinois, however, out of 265 people sentenced to death, 13 (almost 5%) were later released based on evidence of innocence • Even a 0.5% error rate would mean 7,500 to 10,000 innocent people had been convicted in the U.S.

  8. Studies of erroneous convictions • Radelet & Bedau: U.S. convictions in 20th century • Rattner and colleagues: also U.S. convictions • Brandon & Davies: 70 cases in Great Britain between 1950 and 1970 • All focused on cases where crime was not actually committed, or where person convicted was not the real criminal

  9. What happens to the innocent? • Radelet & Bedau: Out of 350 defendants falsely convicted, • State eventually admitted error in 309 cases • 113 cases were reversed on appeal • 38 cases were retried and acquitted • Some cases identified by the researchers as errors because of strong evidence that another person was guilty, or “informed opinion” that the convicted person was innocent

  10. Death sentences for innocent people • R. Mead Shumway, 1909 • Maurice Mays, 1919 • Jesse Dewayne Jacobs,1995 • Randall Dale Adams, 1976 • Kirk Bloodsworth, 1985

  11. Reasons for erroneous conviction • Prosecutor & police errors • Incompetent counsel • Lying witnesses or codefendants • False confessions • Mistaken identification

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