Affiliation:
1. School of Public and International Affairs University of Cincinnati Cincinnnati Ohio USA
Abstract
AbstractObjectiveWe examine the degree to which sentencing patterns in Texas capital cases vary by the gender of the prosecutor. In so doing, we explore the possibility that a factor unrelated to the crime influences whether the death penalty is sought and whether it is imposed.MethodsAcross more than 14,000 capital cases prosecuted in Texas between 1978 and 2018, we use bivariate data and logistic regression to explore the relationship between prosecutor gender and the sentences sought and imposed in capital cases. We control for various details of the crime, victim and defendant demographics, and political variables.ResultsBivariate data reveal that women district attorneys pursued fewer death sentences and ultimately produced fewer death sentences than men. A logistic regression estimates capital case defendants were over 30 percent more likely to be sentenced to death if they faced a male district attorney than a female district attorney.ConclusionThe difference in death penalty imposition based on prosecutor gender is consistent with a theory of masculine focal concerns which suggests differences in the sentencing decision‐making processes of women and men. The results contribute to a growing collection of evidence showing that death penalty cases are affected by factors other than the severity of the crime and the culpability of the defendant, suggesting that case outcomes are subject to “arbitrary” influences that the courts have otherwise deemed suspect and potentially unacceptable.
Reference57 articles.
1. Examining the county‐level political considerations associated with declining reliance on the death penalty from 1990 to 2010*
2. Comparative Review of Death Sentences: An Empirical Study of the Georgia Experience
3. Seeking Sanctuary: Interviews with Family Members of Capital Defendants;Beck Elizabeth;Cornell Law Review,2003
4. Do Women Legislators Matter?
5. Discrimination, Death and Denial: The Tolerance of Racial Discrimination in Infliction of the Death Penalty;Bright Stephen B.;Santa Clara Law Review,1994