title: When domestic goes capital: Juror decision making in capital murder trials involving domestic homicide.
abstract: Prior research suggests that homicide cases involving familial offenders and victims are subject to a "domestic discount" that reduces sentencing severity. However, the operation of a domestic discount in regard to death penalty sentencing has been rarely examined. The current research uses a near-population of jury decisions in capital murder trials conducted in North Carolina from 1991 to 2009 (n = 800), and a series of logistic regression analyses to determine whether there is (a) a direct effect between offender-victim relationship (e.g., domestic, friend/acquaintance, and stranger) and jury decision making, and/or (b) whether domestic offender-victim relationship (as well as other offender-victim relationships) moderates the effect of legal and extralegal case characteristics on jury assessment of the death penalty. Our findings revealed no empirical support for a "domestic discount" whereby juries are less likely to impose death sentences in cases involving domestic homicides. However, substantial differences in predictors of death sentencing were found across offender-victim dyads; most notably, domestic homicide cases demonstrated the most legalistic model of jury decisions to impose death sentences.
authors.affiliation: University of Baltimore.
authors.forename: Tara N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.affiliation: University of South Florida.
authors.forename: M Dwayne
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: University of South Florida.
authors.forename: Sondra J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Fogel
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bjerregaard
mesh_terms: D002203:Capital Punishment / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D019548:Crime Victims; D003657:Decision Making; D017579:Domestic Violence / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006708:Homicide / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D009657:North Carolina