Explain what is meant by a death-qualified juror. How is this determined? How do death-qualified jurors differ from the general population?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers may vary.During jury selection in cases in which the prosecutor seeks a death penalty, prospective jurors are required to answer questions about their attitudes toward capital punishment. This procedure is called death qualification. If jurors indicate extreme beliefs about the death penalty, they may be excused "for cause"-that is, dismissed from that case. More precisely, prospective jurors are excluded if their opposition to capital punishment would "prevent or substantially impair the performance of [their] duties as juror[s] in accordance with [their] instructions and [their] oath" (Wainwright v. Witt, 1985, p. 424). Prospective jurors dismissed for this reason are termed excludables, and those who remain are termed death qualified. Death-qualified jurors are qualified to impose the death penalty because they do not hold strong scruples or reservations about it.Death qualification raises some important questions. Recall that capital cases involve two phases but only one jury to decide both guilt and punishment. Although excludable jurors might be unwilling to impose the death penalty, many could fairly determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Yet death qualification procedures deny them the opportunity to make a decision. These procedures also raise concerns about the leanings of jurors who do assess guilt, concerns that have grown over the years.Intuitively, one might expect that death-qualified juries (those made up of people who are not opposed to the death penalty) would be somewhat more conviction prone than the general population. Indeed, research studies have demonstrated the conviction-proneness of death-qualified juries. For example, Cowan, Thompson, and Ellsworth (1984) recruited mock jurors who were either death qualified or excludable and assigned them to juries; some juries were composed entirely of death-qualified jurors and others contained a few excludables. All watched a recorded murder trial. Three-fourths of the death-qualified juries found the defendant guilty, as did only 53% of the juries with excludable jurors. "Mixed" juries took a more serious approach to their deliberations and were more critical of witnesses and better able to remember the evidence. Death-qualified jurors differ from the general population in other important ways. They interpret evidence in a manner that favors the prosecution and devalue evidence that seems to favor the defense.