This study examines the administration of capital punishment in Kentucky. Comparing execution and death to life commutation cases from 1901–2019, we consider the purpose of the commutation process and its utilization considering offender-victim relationships and the severity of the homicide as determined by the Barnett Scale. While a higher score on the Barnett Scale predicted execution, there remained a pattern of racial discrimination between the two decisions.
AckerJ.HarmonT.RiveraC. (2010). Merciful justice: Lessons from 50 years of New York death penalty commutations. Criminal Justice Review, 35(2), 183–199. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0734016809348361
2.
AckerJ.LanierC. (2000). May God - or the governor - have mercy: Executive clemency and executions in modern death-penalty systems. Criminal Law Bulletin, 36, 200–237.
3.
American Bar Association (2002). Clemency and consequences: State governors and the impact of granting clemency to death row inmates. American Bar Association.
4.
American Bar Association (2011). Evaluating fairness and accuracy in state death penalty systems: The Kentucky death penalty assessment report. American Bar Association.
5.
ArgysL.MocanH. (2004). Analysis of prisoners on death row in the United States. Journal of Legal Studies, 33, 255–282. https://doi.org/10.1086/421570
6.
BannerS. (2002). The death penalty: An American history. Harvard University Press.
7.
BarnettA. (1985). Some distribution patterns for the Georgia death sentence. U.C. Davis Law Review, 18, 1327–1374.
8.
BedauH. (1964). Death sentences in New Jersey, 1907–1960. Rutgers Law Review, 19(1), 1–64.
9.
BedauH. (1965). Capital punishment in Oregon, 1903–1964. Oregon Law Review, 45(1), 1–39.
10.
BedauH. (1990–91). The decline of executive clemency in capital cases. Review of Law & Social Change, XVIII, 255–272.
11.
BonnerR.SmithG. (1931). The administration of justice from homer to Aristotle. International Journal of Ethics, 41(2), 258–261.
12.
BreslinB.HowleyJ. (2002). Defending the politics of clemency. Oregon Law Review, 81(1), 1–19.
13.
BrownE.AdlerD. (1989). Public justice, private mercy: A governor's Education on death row. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
14.
BurnettC. (2003). The failed failsafe: The politics of executive clemency. Texas Journal of Civil Liberties & Civil Rights, 8, 191–205.
15.
BurnettC. (2018). Clemency: Failsafe or fantasy? In BohmR.LeeG. (Eds.), Routledge handbook on capital punishment (pp. 411–426). Routledge.
FletcherE. (2007, December 10). Executive order 2007–1174: Commutation of death sentence. Secretary of State.
20.
FreilichJ.RiveraC. (1999). Mercy, death, and politics: An analysis of executions and commutations in New York state, 1935–1963. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 24(1), 15–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02887615
GarveyS. (2004). Is it wrong to commute death row - retribution, atonement and mercy. North Carolina Law Review, 82(4), 1319–1343.
23.
HearnD. (2016). Legal executions on Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Missouri: A comprehenisve registry, 1866–1965. McFarland & Company.
24.
HeiseM. (2015). The death of death row clemency and the evolving politics of unequal grace. Alabama Law Review, 66, 949–987.
25.
HorowitzV.UggenC. (2019). Consistency and compensation in mercy: Commutation in the era of mass incarceration. Social Forces, 97(3), 1205–1230. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soy065
26.
KeilT.VitoG. (1995). Race and the death penalty in Kentucky murder trials, 1976–1991. Americal Journal of Criminal Justice, 20, 17–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02886116
27.
KlineR. (2015). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. Guilford Press.
28.
KobilD. (2003a). How to grant clemency in unforgiving times. Capital University Law Review, 31, 219–241.
29.
KobilD. (2003b). The evolving role of clemency in capital cases. In AckerJ.BohmR.LanierC. (Eds.), America's experiment with capital punishment (pp. 673–692). Carolina Academic Press.
30.
KraemerJ. (2008). An empirical examination of the factors associated with commutation of state death row prisoners’ sentences between 1986 and 2005. American Criminal Law Review, 45, 1389–1417.
31.
LeavyD. (1981). A matter of life and death: Due process protection in capital clemency. The Yale Law Journal, 90(4), 889–911.
MorelandR. (1971). A re-examination of the law of homicide in 1971: The model penal code. Kentucky Law Journal, 59(4), 788–832.
34.
PalaciosV. (1996). Faith in fantasy: The supreme court's Reliance of commutation to ensure justice in death penalty cases. Vanderbilt Law Review, 49, 311–372.
35.
PampelF. (2000). Logistic regression: A primer. Sage Publications.
36.
PattonP. (2003, December 8). Executive order 2003–1243: Commutation of death sentence. Secretary of State.
37.
PridemoreW. (2000). An empirical examination of commutations and executions in post-furman capital cases. Justice Quarterly, 17(1), 159–183. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418820000094511
38.
RadeletM.ZsembikB. (1992–1993). Executive clemency in post-furman capital cases. University of Richmond Law Review, 27, 289–314.
39.
SampsonF. (1929, September 9). Commutation of death sentence. Secretary of State.
SchaeferL.RadeletM. (2017). Have mercy: New opportunities for commutations in death penalty cases. Human Rights Magazine, 42(2), 18–22.
42.
SteffensmeierD.DemuthS. (2000). Ethnicity and sentencing outcomes in U.S. Federal courts: Who is punished more harshly?American Sociological Review, 65(5), 705–729. https://doi.org/10.2307/2657543
43.
VandiverM. (1992–1993). The quality of mercy: Race and clemency in Florida death penalty cases. University of Richmond Law Review, 27, 315–343.
44.
VitoG.HigginsG.VitoA. (2014). Capital sentencing in Kentucky, 2000–2010. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 39(4), 753–770. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-014-9258-2
45.
VitoG.HigginsG.VitoA. (2018). Kentuckian's attitudes on capital punishment, 1989–2016. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 43, 861–870. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-017-9429-z
46.
VitoG.KeilT. (1988). Capital sentencing in Kentucky: An analysis of the factors influencing decision making in the post-Gregg period. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 79, 483–503.
47.
WolfgangM.KellyA.NoldeH. (1962). Comparison of the executed and commuted among admissions to death row. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 53, 301–311.