Race, Prosecutors, and Juries: The Death Penalty in Tennessee

The behavior of prosecutors and juries with respect to the decision to impose the death penalty is examined. Using data on 968 first-degree murder convictions in Tennessee from 1977 to 2006, models of prosecutorial and jury behavior are constructed with a focus on the role of the defendant's race and the victim's race. Once significant controls are introduced, neither the race of the defendant nor that of the victim is a significant predictor of prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty. Nor is the race of the victim a significant predictor of the jury's decision to impose the death penalty. The defendant's race is a significant, albeit weak, predictor of jury behavior, but only because white defendants are more likely to be sentenced to death. While a number of other variables are significantly related to both prosecutorial and jury behavior, much of the variance in these decisions remains unexplained.