Research on death qual­i­fi­ca­tion – the selec­tion of jurors who are qual­i­fied to serve on a cap­i­tal case because they are will­ing to sen­tence some­one to death – has revealed addi­tion­al char­ac­ter­is­tics among such jurors. Professor Brooke Butler of the University of South Florida in Sarasota has stud­ied such jurors and pub­lished her results in the jour­nal of Behavioral Sciences and the Law. Her study, ​“Death qual­i­fi­ca­tion and prej­u­dice: the effect of implic­it racism, sex­ism, and homo­pho­bia on cap­i­tal defen­dants’ right to due process,” sur­veyed 200 juror can­di­dates from the 12th Circuit in Bradenton, Florida. In addi­tion to the ques­tions that mea­sured their sup­port for the death penal­ty and their death-qual­i­fi­ca­tion sta­tus, she stud­ied their atti­tudes towards women, gays, and peo­ple of oth­er races. The results indi­cat­ed that as death penal­ty sup­port increased, par­tic­i­pants exhib­it­ed more neg­a­tive atti­tudes towards women, homo­sex­u­als, and peo­ple of other races.

(B. Butler, ​“Death qual­i­fi­ca­tion and prej­u­dice: The effect of implic­it racism, sex­ism, and homo­pho­bia on cap­i­tal defen­dants’ right to due process,” 25 Behavioral Sciences and the Law 857 – 867 (2007)). See Studies and Race. A 2007 poll con­duct­ed by the Death Penalty Information Center found 39 per­cent of Americans believed they would be dis­qual­i­fied from from serv­ing on a jury in a cap­i­tal case because of their beliefs.

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