Abstract

In Colorado, studies have shown that the likelihood of the prosecutions’ decision to pursue the death penalty is related to the defendant’s race and judicial district of the trial. These studies examined race and district separately without incorporating aggravating or mitigating factors resulting in others questioning the studies’ validity. Our objective is to address these concerns by modelling race and population density together along with applied aggravating and mitigating factors. We found that the likelihood of the prosecutions’ decision to pursue the death penalty differs by the number of aggravating factors applied to a case, applicability of specific aggravating factors, and the defendant's race. Additionally, there were aggravating factors that were frequently applied yet did not predict the average prosecution’s decision to pursue the death penalty beyond contributing to the overall number of aggravating factors applied to the case.

摘要

在科罗拉多州，研究表明，控方决定执行死刑的可能性与被告的种族和审判的司法地区有关。这些研究分别检查了种族和地区，没有纳入导致其他人质疑研究有效性的加重或减轻因素。我们的目标是通过对种族和人口密度以及应用的加重和减轻因素进行建模来解决这些问题。我们发现，控方决定执行死刑的可能性因适用于案件的加重因素的数量、特定加重因素的适用性以及被告的种族而异。此外，