Dying and Misbehaving on Death Row: A Theoretical Exploration of Death Row Misconduct

Abstract

ABSTRACT Behavioral misconducts of prisoners have been widely investigated, including their timing in one’s sentence; however, the exploration of misconducts among prisoners sentenced to death is highly limited. The death row inhabitants’ experience is qualitatively distinct from other prisoners and is an area in need of deeper inquiry. The stay in prison for many capital prisoners is defined by the sentence’s ultimate outcome – their execution. This paper presents a new framework to understand whether the major stressor of execution leads to distinct arrays of misconduct. The proposed framework utilizes the five stages of grief model to explain when and why violent and nonviolent infractions occur. This exploration is discussed with regards to its policy implications, and its limitations are considered.