Death qualification after Wainwright v. Witt and Lockhart v. McCree..

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Abstract
;. Death qualification is a procedure that occurs during the jury selection phase of capital trials. During death qualification, potential capital jurors are questioned closely about their views on the death penalty, and those whose views are considered incompatible with the duties of capital jurors are excluded from the jury. 1 Death qualification is controversial because it results in the exclusion of a significant number of potential capital jurors solely because of their unwillingness to impose the death penalty. 2 These jurors are qualified to decide guilt and innocence and would not be excluded from noncapitaljuries; they are considered unsuitable only for the penalty phase of capital trials. Because the guilt and penalty phases of capital trials are tried before the same jury, however, these jurors are excluded from capital trials altogether. Thus, in capital trials, unlike other criminal cases, the issue of guilt and innocence is decided exclusively by jurors who have stated a willingness to impose a death sentence. Critics of death qualification have argued for many years that death qualified jurors (those who survive death qualification) are more conviction-prone than those who are excluded, and therefore that death qualification produces juries that

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