Felony Sentencing Research Articles

A COMPARISON OF DEFENSE STRATEGY AND RACE AS INFLUENCES IN DIFFERENTIAL SENTENCING

Abstract This study compares the influence of defense strategy and the race of the defendant on the variance in felony sentence length for a sample of 2,090 convicts in a state penal system Defense strategy includes the subsequent plea of the defendant and the type of defense counsel. Control variables are age, marital status, urban‐rural childhood, education, prior criminal record, and type of crime. A comparison is made for both burglary and homicide. The findings for butglay show defense strategy explains 16.5% of the variance in sentence length (because of the type of plea), while race of the defendant explains only I% of the variance (due to the positive relationship between being black and sentence length). For homicide the unique explanation of the defense strategy model accounts for 3% of the variance (due more to type of attorney than plea), while the race of the defendant accounts for another 3% (because of the negative relationships between being Indian or Mexican‐American and sentence length).

A Statistical Analysis of Sentencing in Federal Courts: Defendants Convicted after Trial, 1967-1968

THE research reported on here is designed to illuminate the effects on sentence of presumably legitimate sentencing factors such as the crime committed, the defendant's age, and his prior record. Some illegitimate factors are suspected of having an effect on the sentencing decision, factors such as the type of counsel and the defendant's race; these too are explored. It is also widely believed that sentencing is intimately intertwined with and may be affected by the needs arising out of the conviction process. This creates the strong possibility that correctionally irrelevant factors may nevertheless determine some part of the sentence. A sentence arrived at as an "administrative accommodation" is unlikely to be a sentence derived from exclusive focus on deterrence or the "rehabilitative ideal." The specific question addressed here is whether the type of trial conviction--bench trial versus jury trial-is a sentencing factor, and if so, how important it is. Whether waiver of a jury in favor of a bench trial should result in a lower sentence for otherwise similarly situated defendants is precisely the type of question that might receive different responses from a prosecutor than from a correctional official.