Capital Idea

On April 8 the surviving Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was found guilty of being the surviving Boston Marathon bomber. I suspect nobody was really surprised by this. The only mystery would be what excuse was concocted to keep him behind bars if he was found Not Guilty… well, not the only mystery. There’s one big step left, the sentencing.

Tsarnaev lives in Massachusetts. He also bombed, and was captured, and is being tried, in Massachusetts. Massachusetts doesn’t have the death penalty… but he is being tried in Federal court, so death is still on the table.

The death penalty is not merely illegal in Massachusetts, it’s also not supported by the general public. But there’s an extra requirement for juries in capital cases, they must be composed of people who are willing to sentence someone to death.

No matter where this happens in the US, it will skew the jury pool somewhat. After all, even if only 8% of people in a state oppose the death penalty, that would normally result in a juror opposed to the death penalty. Since execution isn’t popularly supported in Massachusetts, the effect is far larger.

So what effects does this have? The demographics are easiest to measure: Death-qualified juries are older, whiter, and more male. And there is evidence that they are more likely to convict, as well.

It seems strange that such a system is allowed to persist. The whole point of a jury, after all, is to allowed someone to be tried by their peers. If you only allow peers who are more biased and vindictive, it really defeats the purpose of having a jury at all.

I wonder whether prosecutors ever push to have a capital crime among the charges specifically so they can exclude the less vindictive candidates from the jury pool?

There are some other issues with this specific case... whether he wants to be martyred, whether ideological terrorists would be better off thrown in a hole to be forgotten, that sort of thing. But the general principle is strange enough.

I’m personally opposed to the death penalty, and I’m glad it has been abolished in most of the world. Kudos to Massachusetts for doing so. If only their decision could apply to everyone in their state.