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Accommodating Death Penalty Legislation: Personal and Professional Views of Assistant District Attorneys Toward Capital Punishment

NCJ Number
188447
Journal
American Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Dated: Fall 2000 Pages: 15-29
Author(s)
Lisa Callahan; James R. Acker; Catherine Cerulli
Date Published
2000
Length
15 pages
Annotation
A written survey gathered information on the attitudes of 191 assistant district attorneys from 44 of New York’s 62 county prosecutors’ offices regarding capital punishment.
Abstract
The reinstatement of the death penalty in New York in 1995 forced an entire generation of prosecutors to confront capital punishment for the first time in their careers and provided an opportunity to explore their personal opinions about capital punishment and how this important legal reform had affected their work lives. The initial mailing of the survey took place in November 1997; a follow-up mailing took place in January 1998. Results revealed that the assistant district attorneys held widely divergent opinions about capital punishment. In addition, most participants failed to recognize that their colleagues had differing viewpoints. Moreover, although most believed that support or opposition to capital punishment did not affect office hiring or promotion decisions, about 20 percent thought that death penalty opinions could affect job opportunities, particularly in the direction of support for capital punishment’s being favorable to an assistant’s standing in the office. Findings indicated that the return of the death penalty appeared to have both personal and professional implications for New York assistant district attorneys and had precipitated potentially significant changes in their work environments. Tables and 37 references (Author abstract modified)