Graduation Year
2018
Date of Submission
4-2018
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Psychology
Reader 1
Daniel Krauss, J.D., Ph.D.
OCLC Record Number
1097551633
Abstract
Death qualification is a problematic aspect of capital trials, as death qualified jurors have higher conviction rates than non-death qualified jurors. The current study examines whether the death qualification process itself affects juror decision-making via attitude salience effects.
Participants (n=90) recruited from the venire juror pool at the Santa Ana Superior Court were asked to read a trial transcript and decide guilt or innocence and whether they would sentence the defendant to death. Half of the participants were given a survey determining death qualification before they read the trial (making death qualification salient), while the other half were given the survey at the end of the study (not salient condition).
Although the results do not support the theory that the death qualification process biases jurors’ verdict and sentencing decisions, they do suggest that the proportion, attitudes, and demographics of non-death qualified jurors have changed substantially since initial research on death qualification was undertaken.
Recommended Citation
Busch, Brendan, "The Changing Nature of Death Qualification and its Interaction with Attitude Salience" (2018). CMC Senior Theses. 1892.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1892
