Abstract
No person can make a more important decision than to determine whether another human being should live or die. When a state considers whether to execute its citizens, American law places this critical decision largely in the hands of a jury. At the same time, courts are clearly concerned that juries not devolve into modern-day lynch mobs, motivated mainly by passion and prejudice. Thus while we generally entrust this task to a jury of ordinary citizens, the factors that the jury may take into consideration and the manner in which it reaches its decision are carefully circumscribed.
Recommended Citation
Tiersma, Peter Meijes
(1995)
"Dictionaries and Death: Do Capital Jurors Understand Mitigation?,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 1995:
No.
1, Article 1.
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol1995/iss1/1