@article{ref1,
title="Race and death sentencing for Oklahoma homicides committed between 1990 and 2012",
journal="Journal of criminal law and criminology",
year="2017",
author="Pierce, Glenn and Radelet, Michael and Sharp, Susan",
volume="107",
number="4",
pages="733-733",
abstract="This Article examines 4,668 Oklahoma homicide cases with an identified suspect that occurred during a twenty-three year period between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 2012. Among these, we identified 153 cases that ended with a death sentence. Overall we found that while the defendant's race did not correlate with a death sentence, there was a strong correlation with the race of the victim, with cases with white victims significantly more likely to end with a death sentence than cases with non-white victims. Homicides with female victims were also more likely to result in a death sentence than other cases. We then examined whether the homicide included multiple victims and/or additional felony circumstances, and coded each case to indicate whether it included zero, one, or two of these &quot;additional legally relevant factors.&quot; Using logistic regression analysis, where the effects of each predictor variable can be isolated, the data indicate that 1) having a white female victim, 2) having a white male victim, 3) having a female victim from a minority race or ethnicity, 4) having one additional legally relevant factor, and 5) having two additional legally relevant factors present are statistically significant predictors of a death sentence. Overall, the data show that the odds of a death sentence for those with white female victims are 9.59 times higher than in cases with minority male victims. The odds of a death sentence for those with white male victims are 3.22 times higher than the odds of a death sentence with minority male victims. Finally, the odds of a death sentence for those with minority female victims are 8.68 times higher than the odds of a death sentence with minority male victims. All these race/gender effects are net of our two control variables (multiple murder victims and the presence of additional felony circumstances).<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0091-4169",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}