@article{ref1,
title="Effects of a mandatory death penalty on the decisions of simulated jurors as a function of heinousness of the crime",
journal="Journal of criminal justice",
year="1973",
author="Hester, Reid K. and Smith, Ronald E.",
volume="1",
number="4",
pages="319-326",
abstract="The influence of a mandatory death penalty on the verdicts of simulated jurors was assessed. Seventy male and 81 female subjects read a description of a trial involving either a gang war murder or the heinous murder of a child. A guilty verdict carried with it either a prison term or a mandatory death penalty. Given equivalent evidence against the defendant, subjects rendered guilty verdicts significantly less frequently when the sentence was the death penalty than when it was a prison term. However, the influence of the death penalty in decreasing the likelihood of a guilty verdict was defendent on the nature of the crime. The difference in frequency of guilty verdicts was significant in the gang-war-murder condition but was not significant in the heinous-murder condition. Conviction rates in the imprisonment condition were unaffected by the nature of the crime.<p />",
language="",
issn="0047-2352",
doi="10.1016/0047-2352(73)90034-2",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0047-2352(73)90034-2"
}