Abstract
In the USA, 125 (11.6%) of the inmates executed between 1977 and 2006 elected to halt legal petitions, thereby hastening their own executions. Prior research on defense attorneys suggests that the news may play a pivotal role in the dynamic of elected executions (EEs). This study examines print news media coverage of 52 EEs occurring in six US states between 1979 and 2006. Thematic content analysis examined 749 Associated Press articles, identifying the frames journalists evoke when discussing EEs. When normalizing EEs, journalists commonly frame stories in terms of inmate choice; when problematizing EEs, they tend to question inmates' competency. Coverage is most intense when states have their first EE or during the execution of a famous inmate. Findings suggest that the alternation between these two frames (choice and competency) is consistent with competing legal notions of fairness: honoring defendants' wishes vs. maintaining the integrity of the legal process. Moreover, findings suggest that current news frames help render EEs palatable, upholding the larger cultural idealization of capital punishment as 'clean.'
| Original language | British English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 345-365 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Criminal Justice Studies |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2009 |
Keywords
- Capital punishment as clean
- Choice and competency
- Elected executions
- Media coverage