1. The Death Penalty: Lindy Lou, Juror #2
Dr. David Tushaus Missouri Western State University
Presented at: Missouri Western State University
September 12, 2017

2. DEATH PENALTY CONT’D
Texas, Virginia and Florida have the highest rates of executions in the U.S.

3. The Bifurcated Trial System
Aggravating and Mitigating Factors:

4. Aggravating Factors
In the State of Florida there are certain aggravating factors which the court can consider. They can include but are not limited to the following:
The murder of a child.
The murder of an elderly person.
The murder of a victim in a heinous, atrocious and cruel manner.

5. Aggravating Factors
The defendant “knowingly created great risk of death to many persons”.
Premeditated murder.
Killing of a law enforcement officer.

6. Mitigating Factors
The court can consider several mitigating factors regarding the defendant, including but not limited to the following:
Mental Illness-Did the defendant commit the crime while under “extreme emotional disturbance”.

7. Mitigating Factors:Psycho-Social History.
Substance Abuse.
Physical or emotional abuse.
Lack of educational opportunities.
Mitigation specialists are experts in locating, identifying and presenting mitigation factors in a death penalty case. This can be done by specialists who are psychologists, attorneys trained in mitigation specialty or social workers.

8. Mitigating Factors
The age of the defendant when they committed the crime.
Was the defendant under duress when he/she committed the crime.

9. Mitigating factors cont’d
No significant prior criminal history.
Family background.
Employment history.

10. States with the Death Penalty
Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Delaware Florida-3 Georgia Idaho Indiana Kansas Kentucky
Louisiana Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Oregon
*This chart was created by the Death Penalty Information Center.
Pennsylvania South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas-1 Utah Virginia-2 Washington Wyoming ALSO - U.S. Gov't and Military

11. States w/out the Death Penalty
STATES WITHOUT THE DEATH PENALTY (18) (YEAR ABOLISHED IN PARENTHESES)
Alaska (1957) Connecticut** (2012) Hawaii (1957) Illinois (2011) Iowa (1965) Maine (1887) Maryland (2013) Massachusetts (1984)
Michigan (1846) Minnesota (1911) New Jersey (2007) New Mexico* (2009) New York (2007)# North Dakota (1973) Rhode Island (1984)^ Vermont (1964)
*Chart created by the Death Penalty Information Center.
West Virginia (1965) Wisconsin (1853) ALSO Dist. of Columbia (1981) 

12. http://www. amnestyusa

13. INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE DEATH PENALTY

14. International Law and the Death Penalty

15. Death Penalty Information Resource Center
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16. Costs of the Death Penalty
The death penalty is more expensive than life in prison without the possibility of parole(LWOP).
In Texas, capital cases costs $2.3 million more than LWOP.
The state of Florida spends $3.2 million more for each execution. It is estimated that each execution in Florida is approximately $24 million (*Number of executions between ). (The Miami Herald).

17. Costs of the Death Penalty:
NY state spent over $170 million prosecuting death penalty cases over 9 years. The cost factor was one of the reasons given for abolishing the death penalty.
The state of N.J. also eliminated the death penalty. Over a 25 year period, it cost N.J. $253 million to implement the death penalty.

18. Race and the Death Penalty: Statistics
Race is a factor in the imposition of death penalty cases including the race of the defendant, victim and jurors.
Since the reinstatement of the death penalty, the U.S. has executed 300 African-Americans.
African-Americans make up 12% of the population but they are 40% of the death row inmates.

19. Race and the Death Penalty:
Since 1977, 37% of the inmates on death row who have been executed are African Americans.

20. The race of the victim:
Since 1976, 840 people have been executed in the U.S., 80% of those on death row were there for killing a white victim.
Only 13% of those on death row were convicted of killing a black victim.

21. Race and the Death Penalty:The U.N.
In 1998, the U.N. Special Rapporteur wrote, “the imposition of the death sentences in the United States seems to continue to be marked by arbitrariness. Race, ethnic origin and economic status appear to be key determinants of who will, and who will not, receive a sentence of death.”

22. Race and the Death Penalty.

23. Resources
Bedau, Adam Hugo, The Death Penalty in America, NY, Oxford University Press
Florida Statutes online:
McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987)
Google images.