"The number of death sentences in a given county in a given year is better predicted by that county’s previous experience in imposing death than by the number o

"The number of death sentences in a given county in a given year is better predicted by that county’s previous experience in imposing death than by the number of homicides." That's not exactly a surprising result. A lot of people (probably including me) just won't use the death penalty unless there's a serial killer who videotaped his crimes and swore to break out of jail. The ones who will use the death penalty in more cases are not uniformly distributed.