This dissertation addresses the question of consistency in appellate decisions of the Florida Supreme Court in death penalty cases decided between 1973 and mid-1986. The theoretical perspective of the study is retributive. This perspective is used because it is the basis of the United States Supreme Court's approval of current death sentencing statutes. The legal requirements of a retributive justification of capital punishment have been stated both by the United States Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court. These requirements are the basis of the hypotheses tested in the study. / The review of the literature summarizes both statistical and qualitative research. The history of Florida's current death penalty law is given, and the Florida Supreme Court's role in reviewing capital cases is described in detail. The methods chapter discusses the data sources and difficulties encountered in the coding of certain variables. The chapter ends with a list of the specific hypotheses to be tested. / The data are analyzed both statistically and qualitatively. Results of the statistical analysis are mixed, with some hypotheses supported and others not supported by the data. Several areas in which the court's performance does not seem to meet the legal standards are identified. The qualitative analysis found serious problems in the Florida Supreme Court's review of cases. The dissertation concludes that the court has failed to consistently apply its own standards of review to the cases it considers. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-01, Section: A, page: 0300. / Major Professor: Gordon P. Waldo. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78151 |
| Contributors | Vandiver, Margaret., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 380 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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