Damon Salvatore - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Starting in the mid-1990s-for the first time since the Furman era-public approval of the death pe... more Starting in the mid-1990s-for the first time since the Furman era-public approval of the death penalty took a dramatic dive. Baumgartner argues that this wave of opposition was brought about by the "innocence frame," a novel media frame bringing public awareness to the possibility that innocent people may be, and likely have been, executed for crimes that they did not commit. I expand upon Baumgartner's macro-level approach to the innocence frame, focusing instead on the inner workings of the innocence frame and the implications thereof. Specifically, I identify and investigate one of the innocence frame's two sub-frames-"actual innocence" and "fallibility"-which dictate the extent to which the innocence frame moves public opinion of the death penalty. Having narrowed the scope of my analysis from the innocence frame to actual innocence, I conducted an experiment seeking to identify factors that might assertively establish (or, alternatively, cast into doubt) the innocence of those who were wrongfully convicted and exonerated. I then observe how these factors affect evaluations of exoneree innocence and, in turn, how these evaluations affect attitudes toward the death penalty-thus demonstrating an "actual innocence" framing effect. Finally, I conduct a content analysis in order to assess how the media utilizes the actual innocence frame over time. Results indicate that the presence of DNA evidence in media coverage of exonerations affects evaluations of exoneree innocence, though the extent to which these evaluations shape attitudes toward the death penalty remains uncertain. Results also indicate that the media does utilize the actual innocence frameespecially during periods of time slightly preceding or coinciding with periods of skepticism regarding capital punishment. Together, the data shed light on the problematic nature of "innocence" in America, warranting further examination of the actual innocence frame and, moreover, our fundamental assumptions about modern criminal justice.
Starting in the mid-1990s-for the first time since the Furman era-public approval of the death pe... more Starting in the mid-1990s-for the first time since the Furman era-public approval of the death penalty took a dramatic dive. Baumgartner argues that this wave of opposition was brought about by the "innocence frame," a novel media frame bringing public awareness to the possibility that innocent people may be, and likely have been, executed for crimes that they did not commit. I expand upon Baumgartner's macro-level approach to the innocence frame, focusing instead on the inner workings of the innocence frame and the implications thereof. Specifically, I identify and investigate one of the innocence frame's two sub-frames-"actual innocence" and "fallibility"-which dictate the extent to which the innocence frame moves public opinion of the death penalty. Having narrowed the scope of my analysis from the innocence frame to actual innocence, I conducted an experiment seeking to identify factors that might assertively establish (or, alternatively, cast into doubt) the innocence of those who were wrongfully convicted and exonerated. I then observe how these factors affect evaluations of exoneree innocence and, in turn, how these evaluations affect attitudes toward the death penalty-thus demonstrating an "actual innocence" framing effect. Finally, I conduct a content analysis in order to assess how the media utilizes the actual innocence frame over time. Results indicate that the presence of DNA evidence in media coverage of exonerations affects evaluations of exoneree innocence, though the extent to which these evaluations shape attitudes toward the death penalty remains uncertain. Results also indicate that the media does utilize the actual innocence frameespecially during periods of time slightly preceding or coinciding with periods of skepticism regarding capital punishment. Together, the data shed light on the problematic nature of "innocence" in America, warranting further examination of the actual innocence frame and, moreover, our fundamental assumptions about modern criminal justice.