Diminishing Support for the Death Penalty

This chapter presents and analyzes the current state of law and research on the capital jury. First, it presents the legal framework for capital jury selection and research on the “death-qualified” jury, whose members are eligible to serve in a capital case. It also discusses research showing that the death-qualification process skews the composition of the capital jury so that it fails to represent the community and is more conviction-prone. Next, the chapter considers the contemporary death penalty in the United States, noting the challenge that comes from declining support for capital punishment and the need to select representative capital juries. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of the current trends in support for the death penalty and research on capital juries.