Sentences (Criminal procedure)

This thesis is a study of the empirical significance of sentencing information on jury decision-making. A challenge in conducting jury behavior research is that direct observation of jury deliberation is either illegal or impractical. Thus most studies of jury behavior are conducted using archival analysis and mock jury questionnaires. And while we have some information on the issue of jury instruction complexity on jury decision-making, we know very little about the specific role of sentencing information on jury decision-making. My research combines aspects of the jury decision-making literature with the sentencing literature, and thus fills a crucial gap in the literature. While we know much about jury decision-making and much about the process of sentencing--this research directly tested whether these two phenomena are related. Mock trials of 100 participants were used to collect the data for this thesis study. The results provide clear evidence that there is a significant effect on jury decision-making when the jurors are provided with sentencing information.

In 2005, the United States Supreme Court found the execution of juvenile offenders to be unconstitutional, based in part on a "national consensus" against the death penalty for juveniles. The purpose of this project was to demonstrate the flaws in existing methods of measuring public opinion and to determine the correlation between the age of an offender and the sentencing recommendation received. It was the hypothesis of my project that there would not be a statistically significant correlation between the offender's age and sentencing recommendation. To test this hypothesis, I asked 156 Florida Atlantic University students. This method of analysis was considered the best way to accurately determine public sentiment towards the juvenile death penalty, after a thorough review of existing methods revealed significant flaws. My results suggest that there is no correlation between the age of an offender and sentencing recommendations.