COMPARISON OF THE EXECUTED AND THE COMMUTED AMONG ADMISSIONS TO DEATH ROW.

Is a rational, fair scheme, consistent with the principles of equality of justice, discernible in the commutation of death sentences? Or does a selective system appear to operate, differentiating between the executed and commuted upon improper bases? With these questions in mind, the authors have studied the case records of 439 persons sentenced to death for first degree murder and detained on death row in Pennsylvania between 1914 and 1958. How did the case records of those whose sentences were commuted differ from the case records of those who died in the electric chair? In this article, the authors present the differences in terms of type of murder committed, age, race, nativity, occupation, marital status, type of counsel, and other relevant factors; evaluate the statistically significant differences; and discuss the implications of their findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]