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New Researcher Grant awarded to Dr. Brooke Butler for additional research on the death penalty 

SARASOTA, FL (June 9, 2006) – Many in the legal community consider Dr. Brooke Butler to be the world’s leading expert on death qualification – the process by which jurors are chosen for trials involving the death penalty. The University of South Florida wants to help her prove it. 

Butler is an assistant professor of psychology at USF Sarasota-Manatee. The Division of Sponsored Research at USF in Tampa has awarded Butler the New Researcher Grant to continue her research on the death penalty and death qualification. 

Her research focuses on how death qualification affects jurors’ susceptibility to victim impact statements. 

“Victim impact statements can have a strong effect on certain members of a jury,” Butler said.  “Some people who are killed don’t have friends or family members to make those impact statements, and some jury members are more strongly affected by them than others.  The United States currently utilizes the death penalty as the ultimate form of punishment.  We know the system isn’t perfect, we know we make mistakes, but we should at least try to make sure that capital defendants receive a fair trial.”  

The New Researcher Grants were created for junior faculty who are new to USF and do not have established funding sources.  Butler is the only faculty member at USF Sarasota-Manatee to ever receive the $3,000 grant and the only psychology researcher to receive it this summer. 

“I am honored that they would even consider me for this award,” Butler said.  “It’s so much more than the money.  There were so many great proposals to choose from, and this means that my research is important, and that people are willing to listen to what I have to say.” 

When she isn’t knee deep in research proposals, Butler, who holds a doctorate in legal psychology, teaches between three and four classes per year at USF Sarasota-Manatee.  Most of her classes are based on social or legal psychology, with her favorite being the death penalty course she will teach this fall. 

She hopes that the New Researcher Grant will help to further the research she is able to do. 

“If I can show that I have been funded in the past, I am more likely to get funding in the future,” she said.  “This is a very big step for me and the research I’m doing.  I still have a lot to prove.” 

USF Sarasota-Manatee is an upper-level campus for those with an associate’s or bachelor’s degree who are interested in earning a baccalaureate or master’s degree, professional certification or continuing education credit. The regional campus offers the prestige of a national Research I university with the convenience of a hometown campus, including classes in south Sarasota County at MCC Venice.