Does Racism Fuel Conviction Proneness Among Non–African Americans? Assessing the Impact of Juror Bias at the Conviction Stage of Capital Trials

Abstract

Previous theory has attempted to explain the disproportionate application of death sentences to African American defendants. It has been argued that racial prejudice directly and indirectly influences attitudes toward capital punishment, and this ultimately impacts conviction proneness, a tendency to favor conviction over acquittal among capital jurors. In the current research, the 1990 and 1996 General Social Survey are used in a series of multiple and logistic regression equations in an effort to extend this theoretical framework by applying it to non–African American respondents who favor capital punishment (N = 372). Although age, low education level, and conservatism influence racial prejudice among non–African American death penalty supporters, the findings suggest that racial bias is not a significant predictor of conviction proneness either directly or indirectly. Implications for the theory are discussed.