Victim Characteristics and Victim Impact Evidence in South Carolina Capital Cases

Abstract

The use of victim impact evidence (VIE) has been a standard feature of capital trials since 1991, when the Supreme Court lifted the previously existing constitutional bar to such evidence. Legal scholars have almost universally condemned the use of VIE, criticizing it on a variety of grounds. Yet little empirical analysis exists that examines how VIE influences the course and outcome of capital trials. We analyze the influence of VIE based on interviews with over two-hundred jurors who sat on capital trials in South Carolina between 1985 and 2001. First, we describe the VIE introduced at sentencing trials, using a subset of the interviews that posed questions directly focusing on VIE. Second, we analyze a factor closely related to, and influenced by, VIE--a factor we refer to as victim admirability. We find evidence of a strong correlation between victim admirability and VIE use. Victim admirability substantially increases with the increased use and refinement of VIE. In addition, we find some correlation between victim admirability and jurors\u27 perceived seriousness of the crime. Our third topic focuses on sentencing outcomes. We study the relation between capital sentencing outcomes and VIE itself, as well as the relation between victim admirability--found to be influenced by VIE--and capital sentencing outcomes. We find no significant relation between increased victim admirability and juror capital sentencing votes, nor do we find a significant relation between the introduction of VIE and sentencing outcomes