The Investigation and Prosecution of Homicide Cases in the U.S.: The Process of Federal Involvement

The goal of this project is to identify the processes by which cases flow into the Federal system and determine whether these various processes help explain the racial/ethnic composition of those charged with federal death penalty offenses. To do so, the research takes the distinct process data and develops flow models to describe different offense types. The research will use data developed in the previous grant to analyze data from four federal districts in a three-step process; 1) findings from interviews will be written in a descriptive form, 2) models will be developed to show the general flow of cases by offense type or category, and 3) comparisons will be made between the nature of the offenses within each district and case flows into state and federal systems.
nc/ncf