NCJ Number
139338
Date Published
1991
Length
93 pages
Annotation
As part of New Jersey's Death Penalty Proportionality Review Project, this report presents the details of State v. Robert Marshall, in which Marshall received the death penalty for hiring the gunman who killed his wife. It then uses two methods for determining whether or not Marshall's sentence was proportionate to his crime.
Abstract
The two methods for sentence review used in this study are the "frequency approach" and the "comparative culpability" approach. The frequency approach involves the determination of the frequency with which death sentences have been imposed in the past and are likely to be imposed in the future in cases similar to the death-sentence case under review. In a review of the Marshall case, this study estimates death-sentencing frequencies among prior similar cases, using three related measures that assess the relative criminal culpability of similar defendants: the salient factors method, the number of aggravating and mitigating circumstances found and present, and statistically derived culpability indices and scales. The study concludes that because of the small number of cases that match Marshall's on both the blameworthiness and victimization dimensions, there is an uncertain basis for concluding that cases like his either will or will not be associated with frequent death sentencing over the long term. The comparative culpability approach for death- sentence review aims to determine whether Marshall's criminal culpability so far exceeds that of life-sentenced cases as to justify his death sentence or whether his culpability is sufficiently comparable to the life-sentenced cases to justify a sentence reduction. 4 tables