The University of Chicago Law School’s Journal of Law and Economics features an article by researchers Jeffrey Kubik and John Moran examining the relationship between politics and executions. In their article, Lethal Elections: Gubernatorial Politics and the Timing of Executions, Kubik and Moran found that states are about 25% more likely to conduct executions in gubernatorial election years than in other years. They also found that the effect of elections on executions is more pronounced for African-American defendants than for white defendants and is larger in the South than in other areas of the country. (46 Journal of Law and Economics 1 (2003)) See Law Reviews.
Citation Guide