Death Penalty Study Explores Lack of Uniformity
A study conducted for the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) was released on July 17. It finds that processes and decisions that determine whether a case ends up in the federal justice system are fragmented, decentralized, and reactive, and are strongly influenced by local customs, traditions, and personalities. NORC researchers Phyllis Newton, Candace Johnson, and Tim Mulcahy contributed to the study, which grew out of two U.S. Department of Justice studies that examined the federal death penalty system and found that inmates on federal death row tended to come from minority backgrounds and from only a few geographical regions of the country. The report, entitled "Investigation and Prosecution of Homicide Cases in the U.S.: The Process for Federal Involvement," is available on the NIJ website.