Books, Crooks, and Counselors by Leslie Budewitz

Author:Leslie Budewitz [ Budewitz, Leslie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-61035-019-8
Publisher: Linden Publishing
Published: 2011-03-12T05:00:00+00:00

What are aggravating and mitigating factors in death penalty cases? Aggravating factors, used to impose a death sentence, may include:

• a particularly depraved crime;

• multiple victims;

• a financial motivation;

• whether the offender was in official custody;

• previous convictions for deliberate homicide;

• use of torture or ambush;

• murder as part of a scheme to kill more than one person;

• murder during the course of certain types of sexual assault;

• whether the victim was a law enforcement officer performing his or her duties; or

• the death of a kidnaping victim.

The Joseph Duncan case, previously discussed, involved at least five aggravating factors.

Mitigating circumstances that might merit leniency in an individual case include:

• no significant history of prior criminal activity;

• the defendant’s personal history, including childhood abuse and neglect;

• the role of mental illness;

• whether the crime was committed under extreme duress or substantial domination by another person;

• diminished mental capacity; or

• relatively minor participation in an offense committed by another.

Prosecutors may agree to waive the death penalty in exchange for a guilty plea, as in the cases of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway. But, as with Zacarias Moussaoui, aka the Twentieth Hijacker, they are not obliged to do so.

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