Deck 2: Economics of Capital Punishment

Question 1

What is (economic) capital?

Answer 1

Capital is the resources used in the production of goods and services, which include machinery, equipment, buildings, and vehicles used in creating the firms' output.

Question 2

What is a capital offense?

Answer 2

A capital offense is a criminal charge punishable by the death penalty or "losing one's head." It is a crime such as murder or betrayal of one's country that is determined to be so serious that the death penalty is considered an appropriate punishment.

Question 3

What is the death penalty?

Answer 3

The death penalty is the punishment of execution given to a person who has been convicted of a capital offense by a court of law, although there may be reasons that the punishment is never administered.

Question 4

What is a capital trial?

Question 5

What is capital punishment?

Question 6

What is the foundational information an economist needs to study capital punishment?

Question 7

What is the purpose of capital punishment?

Question 8

How do mitigating circumstances and aggravating circumstances affect a capital trial?

Question 9

What is a bifurcated trial process?

Question 10

What are the eight stages of the bifurcated trial process?

Question 11

What is "super due process?"

Question 12

What happens to the convicted person and his/her trial during the appeals stage?

Question 13

What are the four key issues that the U.S. Supreme Court decision on capital punishment are based?

Question 14

How did the 1972 court case Furman v. Georgia (408 U.S. 238) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 15

How did the 1976 court case Gregg v. Georgia (428 U.S. 153) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 16

How did the 1977 Supreme Court decision Coker v. Georgia (433 U.S. 584) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 17

How did the 1988 Supreme Court decision Thompson v. Oklahoma (724 U.S. 780) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 18

How did the 1989 Supreme Court decision Penry v. Lynaugh (832 U.S. 915) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 19

How did the 1993 Supreme Court decision Herrera v. Collins (506 U.S. 390) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 20

How did the 2002 Supreme Court decision Atkins v. Virginia (536 U.S. 304) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 21

How did the 2002 Supreme Court decision Ring v. Arizona (536 U.S. 584) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 22

How did the 2005 Supreme Court decision Roper v. Simmons (543 U.S. 551) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 23

How did the 2006 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Sanders (546 U.S. 212) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 24

How did the 2006 Supreme Court decision Kansas v. Marsh (548 U.S. 163) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 25

How did the 2008 Supreme Court decision Kennedy v. Louisiana (554 U.S. 407) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 26

How did the 2008 Supreme Court decision Baze v. Rees (553 U.S 35) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 27

How did the 2009 Supreme Court decision Bobby v. Bies (556 U.S. 825) affect the capital punishment process?

Question 28

What is the United Nation's stance on capital punishment based on the United Nations' International Convention of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)?

Question 29

How does the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the U.N. Torture Convention) relate to capital punishment?

Question 30

What is the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights' stance on capital punishment based on the American Convention on Human Rights?

Question 31

How do the protocols in the European Council's Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms relate to capital punishment?

Question 32

What are the evolving standards of decency (ESD)?

Question 33

How is life without parole used as an alternative to capital punishment?

Question 34

What are the three main stages in the history of capital punishment in Texas?

Question 35

Why is it difficult to apply cost-benefit analysis to the public policy of capital punishment?

Question 36

What are some of the choices made by law enforcement during the investigation stage?

Question 37

What are some of the choices made by the person accused of committing a capital murder?

Question 38

What are some of the choices made during the indictment stage?

Question 39

What are some of the choices made during the pretrial stage?

Question 40

What are some of the choices made during the trial stage?

Question 41

What are some of the choices made during the punishment stage (or sentencing stage)?

Question 42

What are some of the choices made during the appeals stage?

Question 43

What are the two main types of research that relate to the economics of capital punishment?

Question 44

What are two types of trial costs associated with capital punishment?

Question 45

What are the 10 stages where capital trials may incur costs, according to the United States General Accounting Office?

Question 46

What are some of the governmental costs of capital punishment?

Question 47

Why are capital trials more expensive than non-capital trials?

Question 48

What are the costs to the defendant of a capital trial?

Question 49

How is cost-effectiveness of capital prosecutions usually determined?

Question 50

How do biases effect economics of capital punishment research?

Question 51

What incentives could be put in place to increase or decrease the number of capital-eligible cases that prosecutors decide to try as capital cases?

Question 52

How does the limited time for appeals affect the efficiency of the outcome of a capital case?

Question 53

Who gains (increased benefit) from trying more cases as capital cases?

Question 54

Who loses (increased cost) when more cases are tried as capital cases?

Question 55

Although studies find that capital punishment is not a deterrent to murder, are there incentives that could be used to cause capital punishment to become a deterrent to murder?