Deck 10: Arbitrariness and Discrimination in the Administration of the Death Penalty

Question 1

Which of the following murderers was allowed to plead guilty to 48 murders, thus gaining the distinction of pleading guilty to more murders than any other serial killer in American history and yet still escaped the death penalty?

A) Jeffrey Dahmer
B) Gary Ridgway
C) Henry Lee Lucas
D) Charles Manson
E) none of the above

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Approximately what percent of the executing states have executed fewer than 10 people since executions resumed in 1977?

A) 10
B) 25
C) 40
D) 60
E) 85

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following has not been identified as a source of arbitrariness in the administration of the death penalty?

A) post-Furman statutes that justify arbitrariness
B) jurors' misunderstanding or underestimating their sentencing obligations
C) rule changes by the Supreme Court
D) problems in determining murderous intent
E) all of the above have been identified as sources of arbitrariness

Answer 3

E

Question 4

The states of Texas, Oklahoma, and Virginia account for what percentage of all post-Furman executions.

A) 13
B) 25
C) 36
D) 41
E) more than 50%

Question 5

What percent of all homicides occurred in the South in 2014?

A) 25
B) 46
C) 60
D) 75
E) 90

Question 6

According to a recent study in January 2013 what percentage of counties in the US accounted for all post-Furman executions?

A) 5
B) 10
C) 15
D) 20
E) 25

Question 7

The death penalty has rarely been inflicted on women even though they commit approximately what percent of all homicides?

A) 5
B) 10
C) 20
D) 30
E) 50

Question 8

Nearly 90 percent of the women executed in the United States were executed before what year?

A) 1791
B) 1866
C) 1900
D) 1945
E) 1972

Question 9

Under post-Furman statutes, approximately how many death sentences have been imposed on women each year?

A) 1
B) 2 to 8
C) 9 to 12
D) 25
E) 50

Question 10

About what percent of death row populations were comprised of women, as of late 2010?

A) 2
B) 7
C) 12
D) 17
E) 25

Question 11

Which of the following is a characteristic of executed women?

A) very poor
B) uneducated
C) of the lowest social class in the community
D) their victims tended to be white and of particularly protected classes, either children or socially prominent adults
E) all of the above

Question 12

According to a 2002 Gallup poll, 72 percent of Americans favored the death penalty in general. What percent of respondents in that poll favored the death penalty for women?

A) 12
B) 28
C) 44
D) 68
E) 86

Question 13

Since 1990, which of the following countries has not executed anyone under 18 years of age at the time of the crime?

A) United States
B) Iran
C) Pakistan
D) Saudi Arabia
E) all of the above have executed people who were under 18 years of age at the time of the crime

Question 14

According to the evaluations of Psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis and her colleagues during the mid-1980s, which of the following problems characterized the most juvenile death row inmates?

A) being sodomized by relatives
B) serious psychiatric disturbances
C) suffering head injuries as children
D) psychotic disorders since early childhood
E) below-average reading abilities

Question 15

According to a 2002 Gallup poll, 72 percent of Americans favored the death penalty in general. What percent of respondents in that poll favored the death penalty for juveniles?

A) 8
B) 26
C) 45
D) 66
E) 84

Question 16

From 1800 to 2002, what percent of all persons executed in the United States were African Americans?

A) 10
B) 25
C) 50
D) 75
E) 90

Question 17

From the early 18th century through the mid-20th century, how many times higher were African American execution rates, on average, than white execution rates?

A) 3
B) 6
C) 9
D) 12
E) 15

Question 18

According to a 1990 "evaluation synthesis" of 28 studies prepared by the U.S. General Accounting Office, approximately what percent of the studies found that race of defendant influenced the likelihood of being charged with a capital crime or receiving the death penalty?

A) less than 10
B) 25
C) 50
D) 75
E) more than 90

Question 19

In a study prepared for the American Bar Association by Professors Baldus and Woodworth, in approximately what percent of death penalty states was race of defendant found to be a significant predictor of whom would receive a death sentence?

A) 10
B) 25
C) 50
D) 75
E) 90

Question 20

In a study of death-eligible murderers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between 1983 and 1993 by Professor Baldus and his colleagues, how many times greater chance of receiving a death sentence did African Americans have when compared to similarly situated defendants, even after controlling for a variety of factors including severity of offense and background of defendant?

A) 2
B) 4
C) 6
D) 8
E) 10

Question 21

How many times more capital offenders have been executed in the South than in any other region of the United States under post-Furman statutes?

A) 2
B) 3
C) 5
D) 7
E) 9

Question 22

Approximately what percent of post-Furman executions have taken place in the South?

A) 15
B) 30
C) 45
D) 60
E) 80

Question 23

Approximately what percent of executions for the crime of rape have occurred in the South since 1930?

A) 20
B) 40
C) 60
D) 80
E) 100

Question 24

Approximately what percent of those people executed for the crime of rape in the United States since 1930 were black?

A) 15
B) 25
C) 55
D) 90
E) 100

Question 25

What has research not found about the prolonged discussion of penalty at the very start of the trial during voir dire and death qualification?

A) it predisposes potential jurors to believe that the defendant is guilty and that he will be convicted and sentenced to death
B) it predisposes potential jurors to believe that that judges and attorneys share their guilt-prone views
C) it predisposes potential jurors to believe that the judge in the case favors the death penalty
D) it sensitizes potential jurors to the prospect of imposing the death penalty
E) all of the above have been found

Question 26

Which of the following allows jurors to "morally disengage" from the realities of their death penalty decision?

A) the trial structure
B) the sequencing of evidence
C) the formal, legalistic atmosphere of the trial
D) various legal doctrines
E) all of the above

Question 27

Approximately what percent of the nearly 1,000 defendants sentenced to death in California between 1973 and 2010 have been executed?

A) less than 2
B) 10
C) 25
D) 50
E) 70

Question 28

Which of the following does not contribute to the dehumanization of the capital defendant?

A) media portrayals of the defendant
B) during the guilt phase, the jury hears only the prosecution's description of the crime's brutal details
C) the prosecution's typical theory of the crime
D) court rules that give the prosecution the opportunity to present its evidence of aggravation first during the trial's penalty phase
E) all of the above contribute to dehumanization of the capital defendant

Question 29

Which of the following concepts refers to an unconscious psychological process by which racially discriminatory outcomes can be produced as "cool, distant, and indirect" and manifested not by negative attributions toward out-group members (e.g., blacks) but rather by attributing more positive attributes to in-group members (e.g., whites)?

A) modern racism
B) symbolic racism
C) subtle prejudice
D) aversive racism
E) all of the above

Question 30

According to Professors Nakell and Hardy, arbitrariness is deliberate and discrimination is random.

Question 31

Only 5 of the 34 jurisdictions that have executed at least one person under post-Furman statutes account for about 66 percent of the 1,233 people executed under post-Furman statutes (as of November 5, 2010); two states (Texas and Virginia) can lay claim to about 46 percent of the total; and one state, Texas, has executed more than one-third.

Question 32

A person is no more likely to be convicted of a capital crime in one geographical area of Florida or Georgia than in another.

Question 33

A recent study of Virginia death sentencing practices found that prosecutors were significantly more likely to seek a death sentence in high-density urban areas than in lower density areas of the state.

Question 34

A recent study in Nebraska discovered that prosecutors in non-urban counties were more willing than their counterparts in major urban counties to waive the death penalty unilaterally or by way of plea bargain.

Question 35

A recent study in Illinois found that defendants within Cook County were substantially more likely to receive a death sentence than defendants outside of Cook County.

Question 36

In Texas, Harris County (Houston) alone accounts for nearly a third of the state's death row inmates. It also has the highest murder rate in the state.

Question 37

Research shows that many jurors inappropriately make their sentencing decisions before the sentencing phase of the trial begins, and oftentimes those decisions are pro-death.

Question 38

Data from the Capital Jury Project reveal that jurors frequently have mistaken views about the alternatives to a death sentence and, consequently, vote for death even though they would vote for life if they were assured that the defendant would never be released from prison or would not be released for a long time.

Question 39

Research shows that jurors commonly misapprehend judges' capital-sentencing instructions, especially those pertaining to mitigating circumstances.

Question 40

Professors Miller and Nixon claim that a coherent link between Supreme Court Justices Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas' decisions cannot be found in any method of constitutional interpretation but instead seems to reside only in their politically preferred outcome.

Question 41

Only 1-2% of all people eligible to receive the death penalty in the United States are executed.

Question 42

A majority of persons executed under post-Furman statutes have been black.

Question 43

The principal form of discrimination that currently exists in the administration of capital punishment is offender-based racial discrimination.

Question 44

The principal source of discrimination in the administration of capital punishment is probably the prosecutor's decision to charge a person with a capital crime.

Question 45

In Florida under a post-Furman statute, prosecutors were found to "upgrade" and "downgrade" capital cases depending on the race of the offender and the victim.

Question 46

Research shows that the more negative information about a capital offender a potential juror was exposed to by the media, the more likely the potential juror was willing to convict the offender prior to his or her death penalty trial.

Question 47

Judges are reluctant to grant change of venue motions even when prejudicial publicity has been extensive, community awareness of the crime is very high, and there is significant prejudgment of the case in the communities where the trial is to be held.

Question 48

Research reveals that potential jurors often claim that they can be impartial, even when they know they have been exposed to negative pretrial publicity that has prejudiced their opinion of the defendant.

Question 49

Research indicates that the biasing effects of pretrial publicity are reduced by judicial instructions to ignore it.

Question 50

Research shows that potential jurors can be prejudiced by the responses of other potential jurors during voir dire and, in an effort to be seated or excused, may structure their answers to questions based on the reactions of judges and trial attorneys to the responses to the same questions asked of other potential jurors.

Question 51

Many capital jurors believe the defendant should be sentenced to death, before the penalty phase of the trial begins.

Question 52

Moral disengagement of capital jurors is reduced by legal doctrine that allows detailed discussion during the penalty phase of prison conditions or future prospects should the defendant be sentenced to life imprisonment without opportunity of parole.

Question 53

Moral disengagement of capital jurors is reduced by legal doctrine that allows the telling jurors of the details of the execution the defendant may experience if sentenced to death and how that execution may affect his family and friends.

Question 54

Research shows that when jury instructions are poorly understood, black defendants benefit from the incomprehension, while white defendants are punished for it.

Question 55

Research shows that most jurors are skeptical about an execution ever being carried out after a death sentence is imposed.

Question 56

Established legal doctrine presumes that jurors understand and follow judges' instructions, even when they do not.

Question 57

Long-standing legal doctrine allows jurors to research on their own the meanings of key terms about which they are confused.

Question 58

Research shows that jurors regard exactly the same mitigating and aggravating evidence very differently depending on whether it was offered in a case in which the defendant was white as opposed to one in which he was African American.

Question 59

Research shows that testimony that the defendant was abused as a child, had untreated psychological problems, and was a drug abuser is significantly more mitigating for white defendants than it is for black defendants.

Question 60

Evidence from the Capital Jury Project shows that in black defendant/white victim cases, a death sentence is imposed more than ten times as often if there are at least three white males on the jury.

Question 61

Evidence from the Capital Jury Project shows that the presence of only one black male on the jury reduces the chances of a death sentence by nearly one-half.

Question 62

According to Judge Paul Cassell, black-on-white murders are more likely to involve aggravating factors such as the killing of a law enforcement officer, kidnapping and rape, mutilation, execution-style killing, and torture.

Question 63

An examination of capital murders in Texas between 1974 and 1988 showed that prosecutors were more likely to seek the death penalty in white-victim cases when the defendant was white, and not when the victim was black.

Question 64

Many jurors seem to believe they are only following a prescribed formula in determining a sentence in capital cases.

Question 65

Many jurors in capital cases assume that the sentence they impose is only preliminary and nonbinding, since it will be reviewed and corrected, if necessary, by an appellate court.

Question 66

Former Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardoza wrote that he did not understand the concept of premeditation after several decades of studying and trying to apply it as a judge.

Question 67

On the date of his execution, John Spinkelink could have already been paroled if he had plea bargained and accepted the uncontested second-degree murder conviction offered him by the state of Florida.

Question 68

There has been a historical pattern of racial disparity in the imposition of the death penalty in the United States since the penalty has been imposed on blacks disproportionately to their numbers in the population.

Question 69

For the Supreme Court, as long as racial or other disparities can be justified by relevant legal factors (e.g., that blacks commit a disproportionate number of capital crimes), there is nothing inherently problematical with racial or other disparities in the administration of capital punishment.

Question 70

In the context of capital punishment, discrimination is a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and of special restrictions on the use of capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

Question 71

In death penalty cases, the Supreme Court has allowed racially discriminatory intent to be inferred from "a clear pattern, unexplainable on grounds other than race."

Question 72

Justice Douglas wrote in his Furman decision, "One searches our chronicles in vain for the execution of any member of the affluent strata of this society."

Question 73

Professor Streib identifies two principal sources of discrimination against women: (1) the conscious or subconscious attitudes of key actors in the criminal justice process, and (2) death penalty laws, themselves.

Question 74

A reason for supporting the death penalty for at least some juvenile capital offenders, and what makes the current practice of excluding death-eligible juveniles from the death penalty discriminatory, is that the designation of "juvenile" is arbitrary and only a proxy for more relevant characteristics.

Question 75

In a 1975 study of 361 rape convictions from a sample of 25 Georgia counties from 1945-1965, Professors Wolfgang and Riedel found that black offenders who raped white victims were significantly more likely to be sentenced to death in comparison to rapes involving all other racial combinations.

Question 76

A 1994 study by the Houston Post found that in Harris County--which accounts for more post-Furman executions than any other state other than Texas itself and more death sentences than most states--blacks were sentenced to death twice as often as whites.

Question 77

According to the "evaluation synthesis" of 28 studies prepared by the U.S. General Accounting Office, the race of victim influence was stronger for the earlier stages of the judicial process (e.g., prosecutorial decision to charge defendant with a capital offense, decision to proceed to trial rather than plea bargain) than in later stages.

Question 78

Law Professor Baldus and his colleagues found that in Georgia under its post-Furman statute race-of-victim effects were particularly strong in the midrange of cases when prosecutors and juries have the greatest room for the exercise of discretion.

Question 79

Studies that have found post-Furman racial disparity/discrimination have located the source of it predominately in the discretionary actions of prosecutors and juries.

Question 80

Professor Baldus and his colleagues found that the exercise of discretion by capital jurors is the principal source of the race-of-victim disparities observed in the system.