Victim Impact Evidence in Capital Cases: Does the Victim's Character Matter?1

Edith Greene · Heather Koehring · Melinda Quiat

49 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Applied Social Psychology

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Jury Decision Making Processes Legal processes and jurisprudence Criminal Justice and Penology

Abstract

Victim impact evidence is introduced by the prosecution during the penalty phase of a capital case to describe the character of the victim and the emotional, financial, and physical impact of the victim's murder on survivors. In 1987, the Supreme Court voiced concern that this evidence would permit the capital sentencing decision to turn on jurors' perceptions of the victim's respectability. This study assesses that concern. Mock jurors watched a reenactment of the penalty phase in the case of Booth v. Maryland. We manipulated the respectability of the victim described in the victim impact evidence and found that jurors' judgments of the victims, victims' survivors, and severity of the crime were all affected by this description. We speculate on the way that these moderating variables could, in turn, influence the capital sentencing decision.

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References

1994The Effects of Physical Attractiveness, Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Gender of Defendants and Victims on Judgments of Mock Jurors: A Meta‐Analysis1 1973Attribution of fault to a rape victim as a function of respectability of the victim.1969The influence of the character of the criminal and his victim on the decisions of simulated jurors 1994Comprehending life and death matters: A preliminary study of California's capital penalty instructions.1992Jury decision making in the capital penalty phase: Legal assumptions, empirical findings, and a research agenda.1992The impact of battered woman syndrome evidence on jury decision processes.

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1999The many guises of victim impact evidence and effects on jurors' Judgments 2011The Struggle for ‘‘Ownership of Conflict’’: An Exploration of Victim Participation and Voice in the Criminal Justice System 2010Victim participation in criminal trials in Japan 2014Excusing murder? Conservative jurors’ acceptance of the gay-panic defense.2006The measurement of concern about victims: Empathy, victim advocacy and the Victim Concern Scale (VCS)2003Victim Vices, Victim Voices, and Impact Statements: On the Place of Emotion and the Role of Restorative Justice in Capital Sentencing

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