“This inmate declined to make a last statement”: A Quantitative Exploration of the Determinants of Inmate Execution Final Statements in Texas, 1982-2022
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The last two decades have witnessed a significant growth in the volume of academic work exploring the final statements of inmates executed in the United States of America. While this has done much to advance academic understanding of final statements, comparably little attention has been paid to the not-insignificant number of inmates who decline to speak prior to their execution. The article presents the results of a regression analysis of a 574-case data set covering all executions conducted in Texas between December 1982 and April 2022. Despite including a range of variables, analysis identified only a single significant result: the presence of victims' family and/or close friends. The significance of this finding for existing scholarship and practice is discussed, alongside possible directions for future research.
Authors: Mark Littler, John Walliss
Institution: Liverpool Hope University
Language: English
Topic: Torture, Ethics, and Law
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: Liverpool Hope University
OpenAlex ID: W4402509645