Accommodating death penalty legislation: Personal and professional views of assistant district attorneys toward capital punishment

Reinstatement of the death penalty in New York in 1995 forced an entire generation of prosecutors to confront capital punishment for the first time in their professional capacities. A total of 191 assistant district attorneys (ADAs) from 44 of New York’s 62 county prosecutors’ offices responded to a written survey. The results show ADAs hold widely divergent views about capital punishments, although most respondents fail to recognize their colleagues maintain differing viewpoints. The return of the death penalty appears to have both personal and professional implications for New York ADAs, and has precipitated potentially significant changes in their work environments.