CHAP 7 (Jury Selection / Jury Decision Making)

Question 1

Potential Sources of Juror Bias

Answer 1

Juror Characteristics
Extra-legal factors (ptp, etc)

(CLASS): Juror characteristics
 “truths” about good/bad jurors
 Authoritarianism
 Religious/moral beliefs
 Prejudice
 Pretrial information / Pre Trial Publicity

LITTLE EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE (Prof: Based on evidence, first 12 people you grab are likely as good as any)

Question 2

Provincial and territorial
legislation that outlines the
eligibility criteria for jury
service and how prospective
jurors must be selected

Answer 2

Juries Act

Question 3

In Canada, criminal trials have _______ juries

Answer 3

12-person juries

Question 4

A court order that states a time
and place to go for jury duty

Answer 4

Jury summons

Question 5

History of the Jury System

Answer 5

Old View vs Current View
- Ancient athens (anyone who wanted to could be on the journey, and anyone may be able to be the judge or lawyers involved)
- Wasn’t uncommon for a 200 person jury to happen, given two tokens for guilt or innocent, and toss it into a urn on the way out
- Majority Rules

500 Years Later
- Allowed to be on the jury if you knew the person (who could judge you better than someone who actually knows you)

North America Today
- Mostly morphed from the U.K
- Cannot know the person or have any connection / knowledge
**- Roughly 12 individuals **

Question 6

In Court is it better than judge alone? Or Jury?

Answer 6

Kalven & Zeisel (1966)
- verdicts of similar cases that had verdicts, gave them to jurors and judges to see if they would agree the same
- 80% of the time, judge and juries agreed!
- In other 20% differences, jurors were 5 times more likely to be lenient than judge)

Question 7

US Statistics = Only ______ of cases decided by jury

Answer 7

3-6%
- Most cases solved by plea bargaining, larger the discrepancy, likely weaker the case they have against you

Question 8

In Canada

Summary Offences (________)
- Tried by _________

Indictable Offences
________ for less serious offences are heard

** Hybrid**
__________________

Answer 8

Summary Offences
(< 6 Months, < 2000$)
Judge Alone (ie; prostitution)

Indictable Offences
Judge Alone for less serious offences are heard
Otherwise judge or jury (ie, treason, murder, piracy) (YOU GET CHOICE)
- SERIOUS OFFENCES (NO CHOICE, JURY unless crown specifically wants to do JUDGE

Hybrid
Crown / Crown attorney decides whether summary or indictable

Question 9

The Supreme Court of Canada indicated two fundamental characteristics of juries
(R. v. Sherratt, 1991):

Answer 9

1. A composition that represents the community in which the crime occurred. This is known as representativeness.
2. A lack of bias on the part of jurors, known as impartiality

Question 10

Impartiality? What does it mean to say someone is “impartial”?

Answer 10

Blank Slate? (Tabula rasa) Impossible, Everyone is unique?
- Most would say impartiality means to not have a “fixed opinion”
Are jurors generally impartial?

(TEXTBOOK)
The juror characteristic of impartiality centres on three issues:
1. For a juror to be impartial, they must set aside any pre-existing biases, prejudices, or attitudes and judge the case based solely on the admissible evidence.

2. To be impartial also means that the juror must ignore any information that is not part of the admissible evidence (ie; media attention)
3. It is also important that the juror have no connection to the defendant so that the juror does not view the evidence subjectively or unduly influence the other jurors

(Prof note: Be aware of your biases, they are attitudes to have in hand, not to be avoided)

Question 11

Types and amount of juror challenges

Answer 11

(1) peremptory challenge
(2) A challenge for cause

12 Peremptory challenges per side (either side can eliminate you without any reasoning whatsoever)
- 20 in a murder case

- Bill C-75 removes peremptory challenges

Question 12

Under Bill C-75, a lawyer must establish ____________ in the population (juror) to form a challenge for cause

After, this challenge for cause challenge is warranted and has final approval of any questions to be put to the jury _______________

Answer 12

a reasonable inference of potential bias

only by the judge

Question 13

Legal Mechanism in place to challenge jurors as to whether they would be impartial with respect to a particular issues

Answer 13

A Challenge for Cause

Question 14

How can we screen for potential biases in jurors?
&
Differences in the US vs Canada? The Biggest one being ___________

Answer 14

Voir Dire = To “speak the truth”
-“The process of questioning potential jurors to determine if they can serve fairly and impartially in a trial”

• In the U.S, sometimes an extremely detailed “100” question survey about tons of your personal traits, characteristics and experiences
  Breach of Privacy? Not very effective

- In Canada, all they know is your name and occupation

Death Qualification - U.S
- Jurors have been death qualified, which means they have to be “for” the death penalty
- Challenges those opposed to the death penalty, they cannot be on a jury for someone facing the death penalty as they may be biased to not want to kill said person.
- Excludes women, blacks, as they tend to be against the death penalty

- People that are death qualified have higher levels of authoritarianism
More punitive, more likely to find guilt.

Does the death penalty deter crime?
- Does not tend to reduce crime
-Must think about penalty before hand
-Some studies indicate crime goes up in States with this penalty
- More Strain on court system, more appeals, longer trials

Question 15

Threats to Impartiality – (TEXTBOOK) Key Notes

Answer 15

Media Influence on Jurors
- Pretrial publicity often negative, affecting trial fairness.
- Verdicts may rely on emotions/media bias over evidence.

Pretrial Publicity Studies - Steblay et al. (1999):
- Negative pretrial publicity → modest increase in guilty verdicts.

Ruva, Dickman, & Mayes (2014):
- Negative publicity → more guilty verdicts, higher guilt ratings.

Case Study- Staggs & Landreville (2017):
James Holmes case: Negative publicity → harsher punishment judgments.
Deliberation and Publicity

Ruva & Guenther (2015):
Negative publicity → guilty verdicts, memory errors.
- Jurors discussed publicity despite instructions not to.
- Deliberations failed to reduce bias.

Positive Publicity
Ruva & McEvoy (2008):
- Positive publicity → fewer guilty verdicts; jurors biased positively.
- Negative publicity → more guilty verdicts; jurors biased negatively.

General Publicity Impact
Ruva, Guenther, & Yarbrough (2011):
Any publicity (positive/negative) influences verdicts and juror decisions.

Question 16

R. v. Parks (1993), 24 C.R.(4th) 81
&
The Supreme Court of Canada reiterates this precedent in R. V. Williams (1998)

(In class case regarding premptory / challenge for cause disqualifying jurors)

Answer 16

R.v.Parks
“Ontario courts took judicial notice that “there is a realistic probability that a juror will be influenced in the performance of his or her judicial duty on the basis of racial bias”

R.v.Williams
- Robbery
- Claimed widespread racism against aboriginal people in Canadian Society
- “I hope that the 12 people that try me are not Indian Haters”
-Judge allowed questioning, first trial, 43 questioned, 12 dismissed for bias risk
- Ended in mistrial due to publicity
- At second trial, no challenge was allowed, Supreme court stepped in and the second appeal upheld

Question 17

Swearing In the Triers

Answer 17

Select first 2 Triers of Fact
- “Do you swear that the evidence shall be the truth, nothing but the truth”
- “Do you swear that you will well and truly try whether one of the jurors stands acceptable or unacceptable to try the accused, and a true verdict give according to the evidence”
- Call first potential juror
- “Do you swear…”
- First certified Juror when allowed by triers of fact, takes place of one trier of fact, 2nd and 3rd pick next, and so on

Question 18

The Challenge for Cause Question (R. v. Parks)

Answer 18

“ Would your ability to judge evidence in case without bias, prejudice, or partiality be affected in any way by the fact that the accused it ____”

Question 19

Trier Unacceptable

• If triers find juror ________ or if either lawyer uses a peremptory challenge, the juror is __________________
• This challenged juror is free to be called for _________ later on

Answer 19

unacceptable

excused back to the jury office

another jury pool

Question 20

Overall is voir dire, challenges, personality trait screenings, etc, a good system for weeding out bias? (racial, etc)

Answer 20

May help, but certainly no guarantee of impartiality

Question 21

Free Press or Fair Trial?
In Canada, case law changed with ____________,
This is when ____________

Answer 21

Dagenais (1994)

• Catholic priests charged with child molestation, at same time when boys of st. vincent was airing (fictional story of same topic)
• Defence said it was unfair bias

Dagenais Rules are
- Claim has to be “real & substantial” risk to rights of defendant, for press to be limited, doesn’t happen often
(Milgaard Case)

Question 22

Do we need to ban potentially biasing information?
o Problem with much of the research:
 Freedman & Burke, 1996 (Science Centre)

Answer 22

(TEXTBOOK:It seems that any pretrial publicity, whether positive or negative, can influence juror decision making)
- hard to say for absolute sure

Prof Burke: did research too see if publicity of karla homolka case altered opinions when Burke told participant “new” false news about the case.
- Showed that peoples opinions are only minorly swayed by media coverage both good and bad, likely doseny solely affect decision / answer about guilt or innocence
- Argue that there is less affect of pretrial publicity than imagined, but semi-contrary to other research that says views and views of punishment are????

Question 23

Other Remedies Keeping Potential Juror Impartial (aside from voir dire screening, oaths of truth, challenges)

Answer 23

 Change of venue
 Continuance/delay
 Sequestering
 Judicial Instructions

Question 24

Moving a trial to a community other than the one in which
the crime occurred

Answer 24

Change of venue

Question 25

Delaying the trial until sometime in the future

Answer 25

Adjournment (Continuance/Delay)

Question 26

Expensive, “lockdown” for Jurors, no phone calls, all media out in aims of isolating jurors from bias or outside influence
- difficult to organize effectively

Answer 26

Sequestering

Question 27

legal guidelines that a judge provides to a jury in a court of law. They are also known as charges or directions (ie“avoid the media”)

Answer 27

Judicial Instructions

Question 28

Occurs when a jury ignores
the law and the evidence,
rendering a verdict based
on some other criteria

class: They may ignore a ‘bad’ or ‘immoral’ law

Answer 28

Jury nullification

Question 29

The theory that when jurors
are guided by their emotions
and personal biases rather
than by the law, chaos in
judgments results

Answer 29

Chaos theory

Question 30

When jury members discuss
the evidence privately among
themselves to reach a verdict
that is then provided to the
court

Answer 30

Deliberation

Question 31

How Do We Study Juror and Jury
Behaviour Reflectively?

Answer 31

• Post-trial Interviews
• Archives
  -Simulation
• Field Studies

Question 32

When individuals tend to
become more extreme in their
initial position following a
group discussion

Answer 32

Polarization

Question 33

When jurors move toward
greater leniency during
deliberations

Answer 33

Leniency bias

Question 34

A jury that cannot reach
a unanimous verdict

Answer 34

Hung jury

Question 35

When evidence is strong,
similarity between defendant
and jury leads to punitiveness

Answer 35

Black sheep effect

Question 36

The two personality traits that have been commonly measured in connection to jurors are ________ & ____________

Answer 36

1.authoritarianism
2. dogmatism

more likely to align themselves with the prosecution and, thus, render more guilty

(Gunnell and Ceci (2010) TEXTBOOK): Rational processing (R-processors) occurs through an analysis of fact and logic. Experiential processing (E-processors) occurs through emotion and personal experience. people are likely to fall into one category (ie; someone with a high E-processing rating would is likelier to find an attrative person not guilty than an unattractive one)

• Based on responses to a questionnaire, participants were given a score that would classify them as more of an E-processor or an R-processor.