OBJECTIVES This study examines whether older defendants receive more lenient sentences compared with their younger counterparts and whether the effects of aging on sentencing outcomes manifests itself similarly across male and female offenders. METHODS Using statewide data from Pennsylvania for 1990-94, logit models were used to assess the effects of aging on the in/out or incarcerative decis...

A set of measures assessing competence-related abilities was administered to three groups of criminal defendants: a group committed for restoration of competence, a group identified by jail personnel as mentally ill but not incompetent, and a group without identified mental disorder. Data from this study were used to test key assumptions bearing on the legal criteria for adjudicative competence...

The rate of erroneous conviction of innocent criminal defendants is often described as not merely unknown but unknowable. There is no systematic method to determine the accuracy of a criminal conviction; if there were, these errors would not occur in the first place. As a result, very few false convictions are ever discovered, and those that are discovered are not representative of the group as...

When anticipating the imposition of the death penalty, jurors may be less inclined to convict defendants. On the other hand, minority defendants have been shown to be treated more punitively, particularly in capital cases. Given that the influence of anticipated sentence severity on verdicts may vary as a function of defendant race, the goal of this study was to test the independent and interac...

Mr. Edwin James, Q.C., Mr. Serjeant Petersdorff, and Mr. Gordon Allen, appeared for the plaintiff; and Mr. M. Chambers, Q.C., Mr. Serjeant Ballantinc, and Mr. Honyman for the defendants. , Mr. Gordon Allan opened the pleadings. The first count was for assaulting and imprisoning the plaintiff in a house called Moorcroft-house, in the parish of Hillingdon, and detaining him there among lunatics a...

Researchers previously have investigated the role of race in capital sentencing, and in particular, whether the race of the defendant or victim influences the likelihood of a death sentence. In the present study, we examined whether the likelihood of being sentenced to death is influenced by the degree to which a Black defendant is perceived to have a stereotypically Black appearance. Controlli...

Effective screening of mentally-ill defendants in the criminal court system requires cooperation between legal professionals in the criminal justice system (CJS), and health and social care workers in the mental-health service (MHS). This interagency working, though, can be problematic, as recognized in the Bradley inquiry that recommended joint training for MHS and CJS professionals. The aim o...

The dominant theoretical model of plea bargaining predicts that, under conditions of full information and rational choice, criminal cases should uniformly be settled through plea bargaining. That prediction holds for innocent and guilty defendants alike. Because it is perfectly rational for innocent defendants to plead guilty, plea bargaining might be said to have an "innocence problem." Plea b...

At least 17 jurisdictions permit insanity defenses to be entered over the objections of defendants. Those jurisdictions believe that society's interest in a just determination of the charges outweighs a competent defendant's choice. If competency includes the ability to rationally choose a plea, competent defendants should not be forced to enter insanity defenses against their wills.