Professor Sandys received her Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Kentucky.  She is one of the original and continuing members of the consortium of researchers that comprise the Capital Jury Project (CJP), funded by The National Science Foundation.  The primary focus of that work is to understand, from the jurors themselves, why they voted for life or death and whether those decisions are in keeping with the law designed to guide juror decision making in capital cases.  The more recent focus of the CJP is the role of jurors' race in the dynamics of the jury's deliberation.  Professor Sandys also works with colleagues at the Law School in Indianapolis on the Indiana Innocence Project that is designed to assist in the release from prison of persons wrongfully convicted.  Professor Sandys teaches courses and seminars on such topics as research methods, capital punishment, juries, and innocence.

Selected articles:

Bowers, William J., Marla Sandys, and Thomas W. Brewer (2004).  Crossing Racial Boundaries:  A Closer Look at the Roots of Racial Bias in Capital Sentencing when the Defendant is Black and the Victim is White.  DePaul Law Review, 53:  1497-1538.

Sandys, M. and S. McClelland (2003).  "Stacking the Deck for Guilt and Death: The Failure of Death Qualification to Ensure Impartiality."  In J. Acker, R. M.

Bohm, and C. Lanier (Eds.), America's Experiment with Capital  Punishment:

Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction (2^nd ed., pp. 385-411).  Durham, NC:  Carolina Academic Press.

Bowers, W.J., Sandys, M., and Steiner, B. (1998). Foreclosed Impartiality in Capital Sentencing: Jurors' Predispositions, Guilt-Trial Experience, andPremature Decision-Making. Cornell Law Review 83: 1476-1556.

Sandys, M., and McGarrell, E. F. (1997).  Beyond the Bible Belt: The Influence (or Lack Thereof) of Religion on Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty.  Journal of Crime and Justice, 20(1): 179-190