David V. Baker

Sentencing outcomes, race, and victim impact evidence in california: A pre‐ and post‐payne comparison∗

This paper examines the effect of victim impact evidence in capital‐murder jury trials in California since the United States Supreme Court decided Payne v. Tennessee in 1991. Pursuant to Payne, prosecutors can use victim impact evidence in capital‐murder cases to encourage sentencing juries to impose death as an alternative punishment to life in prison without the possibility of parole. We analyzed 151 capital cases occurring in thirty‐six counties in California between 1989 and 1994. Our findings show that the presentation of victim impact evidence increases the likelihood of receiving a death sentence for some crimes. Secondly, our findings show that victim impact evidence has greater consequences for cases involving Latino defendants, and in cases involving nonwhite defendants and victims.

A descriptive profile of Mexican American executions in the Southwest

Abstract What do we know about the execution of Mexican American prisoners in the Southwest? A descriptive profile of Mexican American prisoners executed in the Southwest is presented. The descriptive profile documents the date, type of execution, offense, age, gender, and occupation for Mexican American prisoners executed in the Southwest. The descriptive profile is presented as an augmentation to the research record regarding Mexican American executions. The descriptive profile is also presented as a valuable tool for asking questions, especially about extra-legal factors, regarding the execution of Mexican Americans in the Southwest.

A descriptive profile of the Hispanic penal population: Conceptual and reliability limitations in public use data*

The focus of this paper is on conceptual limitations in criminal justice statistics regarding the Hispanic population. The paper addresses the problems in constructing a descriptive profile of the Hispanic penal population from public use data sources, and argues that the lack of reliable statistics for the Hispanic penal population is due to a conceptually imiting definition of the Hispanic population.

American Indian Executions in Historical Context

The research record on capital punishment in the USA is void of any empirical analysis of American Indian executions. This paper corrects for this deficiency by presenting a descriptive profile of American Indian executions within a historical–contextual framework of the American Indian experience in US society. The paper suggests that the history of American Indian executions is nested within the sociopolitical context of internal colonialism calculated to dispossess American Indians from their sacred tribal territories, disruption of their cultures, and continuation of their marginalized status.

Latinos and the United States criminal justice system: Introduction

There are almost thirty million Latino persons in the United States, representing eleven percent of the total U.S. population. Relative to their proportion in the U.S. population Latinos are overrepresented in criminal justice statistics. Latinos express “more confidence” in the criminal justice system than either white or black persons. The focus on white/black patterns in criminal justice statistics, however, ignores the study of Latino experiences with the criminal justice system.

Slave executions in the United States: A descriptive analysis of social and historical factors

Abstract Virtually no death penalty research has focused on slave executions in the United States. To correct for this deficiency, this article constructs a descriptive profile of slave executions using M. Watt Espys index of executions in the United States—better known as The Espy File. The construction of a descriptive profile of slave executions is important because analyses of capital punishment in the United States have not delineated the socio-historical relevance of slavery to the execution of blacks. As an augmentation to the research record regarding the general population of executed prisoners, the profile documents the date, method, and jurisdiction of execution, the criminal offense for which the prisoner was executed, and whether the execution involved compensation paid to the slave owner. The descriptive profile suggests that slave executions are associated with the institutionalization of slavery; a correspondence between geographical regionalization and the execution of slaves; that execution was a means of punishing slaves for participation in slave revolts; and that slave executions are directly related to prohibitions against miscegenation.

Female Lynchings in the United States Amending the Historical Record

Justice scholars have failed to distinguish an accurate historical record of female lynchings in the United States. Most probably, one reason for this lapse in the lynching scholarship is that researchers lack the fact-based information required to document troubling narratives of women irrevocably harmed by mob violence. It is impractical for researchers to bring into sharper focus the fiendish torture women suffered from vigilantism without a reliable historical record of confirmed female lynchings. The present work provides an inventory of 179 confirmed cases of women and young girls murdered at the hands of mostly White terrorists from 1835 to 1965. It is equally important, however, to distinguish 57 cases of unconfirmed and factually inaccurate female lynchings that directly challenge the reliability of existing registries. The present work remedies inaccuracies in these inventories with more historically precise narratives of misidentified cases.

‘Trends in the Use of Capital Punishment’—Revisited: A Tribute to Professor Frank E. Hartung

In 1952, Professor Frank E. Hartung recognized several trends in capital punishment suggesting a movement away from its use in the USA including abolition of the penalty, reduction in capital offenses, permissive death sentences, reduction in the number of executions, selective enforcement of the death penalty, private executions, and swift and painless executions. Hartung’s observations on the use of capital punishment were remarkably insightful given the infancy of death penalty research at the time. The present work reviews Hartung’s observations, adds to his observations using more current death penalty inventories, and supplements Hartung’s concerns with the most recent research findings. The research record on capital sentencing in the USA reveals that Professor Hartung’s early observations remain strikingly relevant more than a half‐century later.