Replication data for: The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence

Since 2003 Frank Baumgartner and colleagues have been involved in a project tracing the changing politics and issue-definitions associated with the death penalty. The question is to determine the degree to which the new "innocence" frame is displacing the traditional "morality" frame relating to this issue. Important substantive issues about the future of the death penalty in America can be addressed as well as difficult methodological issues concerning how to study the links among issue-definition, public opinion, the media, and public policy. With Suzanna De Boef, graduate student Amber Boydstun, and occasional other collaborators on different parts of the project, Baumgartner and others have addressed a number of questions relating to these issues. The research has focused on substantive issues relating to how the media has covered the death penalty (with particular reference to the use of various frames), public opinion (in particular the cognitive process by which individuals react to the "moral" and the "innocence " frame, based on experiments), and the history of the issue since 1960.

自2003年起，弗兰克·鲍姆加特纳（Frank Baumgartner）及其团队便参与了一项追踪与死刑相关的政治变迁与议题定义演变的研究项目。该项目旨在探究全新的“无罪框架（innocence frame）”在多大程度上取代了围绕该议题的传统“道德框架（morality frame）”。本项目既可探讨美国死刑制度未来发展相关的各类实质性议题，亦可研究如何探析议题定义、公众舆论、媒体与公共政策间关联的复杂方法论难题。鲍姆加特纳团队与苏珊娜·德·博夫（Suzanna De Boef）、研究生安珀·博伊德斯顿（Amber Boydstun）以及该项目不同环节的其他临时合作者一道，针对上述议题展开了多项研究。该项研究聚焦于三大核心方向：一是媒体对死刑的报道方式（尤其关注各类框架的运用情况）；二是公众舆论（具体而言，即基于实验探究个体对“道德框架”与“无罪框架”作出反应的认知过程）；三是1960年以来该议题的发展历史。