MURDER, THE PARDON BOARD, AND RECOMMENDATIONS BY JUDGES AND DISTRICT ATTORNEYS.

Judges and District Attorneys who had originally and respectively tried and prosecuted persons later applying to a Board of Pardons for commutation of sentence were asked to give a positive or negative recommendation to the Board for the latter's guidance. We have examined these recommendations made for 368 petitioners who had been convicted of first and second degree murder and who applied for and received some form of executive clemency in Pennsylvania between 1950 and 1957. Statistical analysis using standard tests of significance has revealed significant differences of opinion between Judges and District Attorneys for the total 368 cases. These two groups of evaluators disagreed in two-thirds of the cases; Judges, in a significantly higher proportion than District Attorneys, fail to supply the Board with any statement; even in judging the same petitioners there is a low degree of association between the evaluations of Judges and District Attorneys; and in only seven per cent of the total murder cases can it be said that the Pardon Board grants commutation in direct conflict with the combined negative evaluation of Judge and District Attorney. A Discriminative Index of Support has been established, which considers the combined and variable recommendations which a Pardon Board receives. This Index determines the degree of evaluative support (or lack of support) which a Pardon Board has from Judges and District Attorneys in acting favorably on petitions for commutation or pardon. Although in the cases examined the Pardon Board has the positive support of these evaluators, District Attorneys support the Board's decisions in significantly higher proportions that do Judges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]