Exploring the effects on capital punishment sentencing of aggravating and mitigating factors that are not accepted

Abstract

Murder trials in which the death penalty is sought involves the jury's consideration of aggravating factors (circumstances necessary for the crime to be death penalty eligible) and mitigating factors (considerations submitted by the defense intended to dissuade a death sentence). Using data from capital murder trials in North Carolina from 1990 to 2023, this study examines the relationship of accepted and the heretofore unexplored impact of rejected aggravating, statutory mitigating, and non-mitigating factors on jury sentencing decisions while controlling for a host of other relevant variables. As expected, accepted aggravating factors statistically increased the odds of a death sentence while accepted statutory mitigating factors decreased those odds. However, in a finding not considered in previous the literature, we also determined that aggravating factors submitted but not accepted by the jury decreased the odds of a death sentence while mitigating factors (both statutory and non-statutory) submitted but not accepted increased the odds. A complex analysis of individual aggravators and mitigators revealed considerable variation in these impacts. The implications for the processing of capital punishment cases are discussed.