Craig Haney, pro­fes­sor of psy­chol­o­gy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has just pub­lished a new book, Death By Design: Capital Punishment as a Social Psychological System (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2005). Haney explores a num­ber of areas that skew death penal­ty sen­tenc­ing in America:

  • Jury selec­tion–By sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly screen­ing out oppo­nents of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the process pro­duces unrep­re­sen­ta­tive juries and juries that include a high con­cen­tra­tion of peo­ple who are more inclined to convict defendants.

  • Sentencing instruc­tions–Numerous stud­ies reveal that jurors do not under­stand the instruc­tions they receive as they begin the sen­tenc­ing phase of capital trials.

  • Cultural and media myths about crime–Print and broad­cast news, as well as crime-based tele­vi­sion dra­mas, exag­ger­ate the rate of vio­lent crime and demo­nize violent criminals.

The book also offers a num­ber of sug­ges­tions for reforms through the improve­ment of edu­ca­tion, jury instruc­tions, and media cov­er­age of the issues. (U.C. Santa Cruz Press Release, Sept. 26, 2005).

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