Death sentencing and capital punishment been a global issue of the years and has put various members of the jury in the limelight. There have been instances of claims of biasness and attitude in death sentence cases (Allen & McKelton, 2013). Some of the causes of biasness that has marred death sentencing cases include racism and unfavorable attitude. This paper is, therefore, a proposal that analyses how attitude impacts death sentencing and capital punishment. The literature review of the proposal will be a summary of some of the existing related research on this topic and their relevance to the proposed research.
Research Purpose
The main purpose of this research is to propose a quasi-experiment that examines how attitudes of judges impact death sentencing and capital punishment. The specific research question is whether or not the favourable attitude towards death penalty can lead to an increased willingness to convict an individual to a death sentence. The other question is whether unfavorable attitude by members of a jury can be associated with a decreased willingness to convict offenders.
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Method
The research question is created based on two elements, the favorable and the unfavorable attitudes. Two main participants can, therefore, be picked to represent the two elements. The two participants are judges that have for a long time been members of a jury that has determined the outcome of a possible death sentence case. A statistical study can be done to evaluate the trend in most cases of the two participants. The study is very crucial in accurately picking out which judge will represent the study on favorable attitude and one that will represent unfavorable attitude. The elements of attitude that are being tested in order to evaluate how they impact the willingness to sentence or not to sentence include racism and attitude towards death sentences (Eberhardt & Davies, 2016). There have been outcries from the public as a result of the increased persecution of many blacks in the United States. Such issue has also been experienced in other countries which make it one critical attitude element to experiment on.
As opposed to collecting data from the two participants using questionnaires the data collection should be done without the knowledge of the two participants. The judicial system is an independent institution that makes its policies and decisions without the control from anyone (Chamallas, 2011). Letting the juror aware of the experiment will interfere with the accuracy of the experiment. The independent variable, in this case, will be juror attitudes while the dependent variable is the willingness to sentence. The control test for this proposal can be the elements of the attitude that is racism and death penalty attitude which will examine the extent to which the dependent variable will be affected by the independent variable. After examining the participants and the variable the next step would now be the analysis of how the experiment can be executed. In the first element, extreme cases involving a white person and black person will be presented to both the participants, after that, their outcome will be recorded. The charges must be equal to a death sentence or a harsh capital punishment. In the second test, the same cases can be used as the general perception of an attitude towards death sentence is the same irrespective of the race of the people involved. In order to increase the accuracy of the final result, a similar experiment can be done again. The results will then be tabled down for analysis. Due to the nature of the experiment, a statistical inference will be made therefore statistical ways of analysis such as probability and CHI-square will be very appropriate for the analysis.
Intellectual Merit and Broader Impact
The research proposal is not only effective in defining the scope of the hypothesis and addressing the research issue but it is also very effective in advancing scientific knowledge. The research proposal is both social and psychological hence it is a scientific research. Through this research, we are able to address all the preconceived social superstition and notions and further obtain a perfect understanding of the relationship between social issues, psychological issue and the judicial system (Baldus &Pulaski, 2014). A research like this paves way for more research in different areas of knowledge in regards to application of science in addressing various issues. There has always been a notion that experiments are best done when they have a strong relationship to science. This proposal defies this notion and encourages odd areas such as theology to apply science in some of its research experiments. The use of statistical scientific methods such as the CHI-square is also a perfect illustration of the advancement of science in areas such as psychology.
Irrespective of its outcome the experiment is bound to have a positive impact on the society. The research is addressing a deep-rooted social phenomenon that for a long time has affected the society. The issue of unfair trial and hearing has been a major challenge in the current society (Lynch & Haney, 2013). This has further led to the rise of stereotypes in regards to how death sentence is arrived at. Regardless whether the outcome is positive or negative the research proposal is effectively able to address the stereotypes held by the society in regards to death sentencing and capital punishment. It also paints a picture of equity, equality and justice in the society.
Conclusion
The proposal research on how attitude by members of jury impacts death sentencing is a very unique and odd kind of proposal. If adopted the proposal will be able to shine some light on what happens during trials and death sentencing. It is also able to advance scientific knowledge while having a broader positive impact on the society just as discussed above.
References
Allen, M., Mabry, E., & McKelton, D. M. (2013). Impact of juror attitudes about the death penalty on juror evaluations of guilt and punishment: A meta-analysis.
Baldus, D. C., Woodworth, G., & Pulaski Jr, C. A. (2014). Monitoring and evaluating contemporary death sentencing systems: Lessons from Georgia. UC Davis L. Rev. , 18 , 1375.
Chamallas, M. (2011). Deepening the Legal Understanding of Bias: On Devaluation and Biased Protoypes. S. Cal. L. Rev. , 74 , 747.
Eberhardt, J. L., Davies, P. G., Purdie-Vaughns, V. J., & Johnson, S. L. (2016). Looking deathworthy: Perceived stereotypicality of Black defendants predicts capital-sentencing outcomes. Psychological Science , 17 (5), 383-386.
Lynch, M., & Haney, C. (2013). Mapping the racial bias of the white male capital juror: Jury composition and the “empathic divide”. Law & Society Review , 45 (1), 69-102.
