Huber, Gregory A., and Sanford C. Gordon. “Accountability and Coercion: Is Justice Blind When It Runs for Office?” 48 American Journal of Political Science 247 (2004). (JStor)

This empirical study analyzes sentencing data from 22,095 Pennsylvania criminal cases in the 1990s, concluding that the judicial election process leads judges to become more punitive as the election season approaches.