Arbitrariness and Discrimination under Post-Furman Capital Statutes
Arbitrariness and Discrimination under Post-Furman Capital Statutes
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后弗曼资本法规下的任意性和歧视
DOI：
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发表时间：
1980
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
G. Pierce
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
W. J. Bowers;G. Pierce
这项研究利用了各种各样的数据来源，调查了佛罗里达州、佐治亚州、德克萨斯州和俄亥俄州首府法规下的任意粗鲁和歧视，这些州约占全国人口的70%。在美国最高法院做出福曼裁决后的五年里，全国范围内被判处死刑。它发现，在按种族、挡泥板和受害者以及州内司法巡回处理潜在死刑犯方面存在巨大差异。这些是：(1)与加重重罪有关的情况无关；(2)在刑事司法程序的陈述和量刑阶段都存在；(3)未经宣判后的上诉审查程序纠正；(4)不受各州间首府法规的形式和限制性的改变；(5)与福尔曼之前的首府法规下罪犯和受害者按种族区别对待的最佳记录模式非常相似，目前已被裁定违宪。这些调查结果表明，现行的死刑制度不符合美国最高法院关于福曼和格雷格判决的宪法标准，而是与历史上盛行的法外影响相一致，这些影响损害和取代了这种惩罚的法律规定的职能，是任意性和歧视的持久来源。
Drawing on a wide variety of data sources, this study examines arbi trariness and discrimination under capital statutes in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Ohio, which are responsible for roughly 70 percent of the. death sentences imposed nationwide in the five years following the United States Supreme Court's Furman decision. It finds that there are gross dif ferences in the treatment of potentially capital offenders by race of of fender and victim and by judicial circuits within states. These are (1) inde pendent of aggravating felony-related circumstances, (2) present at both presentencing and sentencing stages of the criminal justice process, (3) uncorrected by the postsentencing appellate review process, (4) unaltered by the form and restrictiveness of capital statutes among states, and (5) remarkably similar to the best documented patterns of differential treat ment by race of offender and victim under pre-Furman capital statutes, now ruled unconstitutional. These findings show that the present system of capital punishment is inconsistent with the constitutional standards of the Furman and Gregg decisions of the United States Supreme Court, but is instead consistent with historically prevailing extralegal influences which compromise and displace the legally prescribed functions of such punishment and are an enduring source of arbitrariness and discrimina tion.