Jury Decision Making 1 Flashcards
What is the adversarial system?
Prosecution vs defence
Jury not involved in the investigation, preparation or collection of evidence
Give a true verdict according to the evidence
What is a civil case?
Lower standard of proof
What is a criminal case?
Proof beyond reasonable doubt
What are the levels of proof?
No evidence Scintilla Reasonable suspicion Probable cause Preponderance Clear and convincing Reasonable doubt
Have to have all to be guilty
What is scintilla?
Any evidence at all. Even the smallest
What is reasonable suspicion?
Should be based on specific or particular facts or reasons. Not based on a hunch or guess
What is probable cause?
Reasonable and trustworthy information that a particular person has committed a particular crime.
What is preponderance?
The greater weight or amount of evidence
What is clear and convincing?
A firm belief that the allegations are true
What are the types of court?
Magistrates court
Crown court
What is the magistrates court?
Hear all criminal cases at first instances.
Serious cases transferred to the crown court.
Less serious cases and juveniles are tries at magistrates courts.
What is the crown court?
Dealing with indictable criminal cases that are transferred from the magistrates courts.
Serious criminal cases (murder, rape, robbery, drug trafficking…)
Appeals against the decisions made by magistrates courts
Heard by judge and jury
Jury decides if guilty or not guilty
Judge imposes a sentence if guilty.
Types of offences?
Summary
Either-way
Indictable-only
What are summary offenses?
Less serious cases
Magistrates court
What are either-way offences?
Cases which can be heard either in a magistrates court or before a judge and jury in the crown court.
What are indictable offences?
Serious cases which have to go to the crown court.
What’s a jury in waiting?
20 or more
Random selection of 12 individuals
How many jurors during trial?
Minimum of 9
How do juries work?
Push for unanimous decision
Deliberate for minimum of 2 hours and 10 minutes before majority decision is accepted.
What juror majorities are allowed?
11-1
10-2
10-1
9-1
If only 9 jurors, decision must be unanimous.
What are hung juries?
No decision - not majority/unanimous
Usually lead to re-trials
What’s a re-trial?
Defendant tried again by a different jury.
If prosecution chooses to proceed for a second time
If jury unable to agree again, conventionally there is no third trial
Prosecution to offer no evidence = not guilty
What’s double-jeopardy?
Law exists in the UK
Has been reformed in the 2003 act
Now allows re-trails for a number of very serious offences
Where new and compelling evidence has come to light.
What are the advantages of research with real juries?
Archival research (verdicts from court records) Field studies (self-report surveys after trial, views of other ppts).
Real reaction (validity) Ecological Generalisable Natural setting Hawthorne effect Will debate in more depth - more seriously
What are the disadvantages of research with real juries?
Little to no experimental control
Difficult to interpret
Can’t see deliberation
Personal biases
Ethical issues
Hard to replicate the study
What are the advantages of research with mock juries?
Prevalent empirical methodology
High degree of experimental control, easier to draw conclusions
Able to observe discussion
Repeatability
What are the disadvantages of research with mock juries?
Artificial, lacks external validity
Unrealistic - no consequences, little pressure
Low generalisability
Hawthorne effect
Wiener, Krauss and Lieberman (2011) issues with jury research?
Some issues with the validity of mock jury research
Suggest that studies should use different samples so they don’t place too much emphasis on student samples.
Focus on replication of results as well
Bernstein et al., (2017) issues with jury research?
Alleviate concerns regarding the use of student samples in jury stimulation research
Found that guilty verdicts, culpability ratings, and damage awards did not vary with samples.
Jury eligibility?
18-76
Understand English
Ordinarily residents in UK for minimum of 5 years
Not mentally disordered
Not disqualified (on bail; imprisonment last 10 years).
Can’t know someone involved in case
Have to understand proceedings
No procedure for balance - race, gender, age etc
Random selection (no scientific selection or voir dire)
Standard DBS check - more if concerns about bias
How can you challenge jurors?
Prosecution asks a juror to stand by
Challenge for cause (pros or def)
Judges discretionary power
When can ‘stand by’ happen?
Only if unsuitable or following advance background check
What is challenge for cause?
Ground of bias - hostility or connected to one side
How does jury selection work in USA?
Objectified to gain advantage - not make process fair
Work out how beliefs and attitudes of each juror will favour one side over the other.
Attitude surveys and scales.
What is challenge for cause (USA)?
Lawyer typically claiming that juror will be biased or have specialist knowledge (e.g. physician + medical malpractice)
What is peremptory challenge (USA)?
If challenge for cause refused
Lawyer can dismiss the juror without cause or approval
Limited number allowed
What is voir dire (UK)?
Trial within a trial
Determine the admissibility of evidence
Or the competency of a witness or juror
What is voir dire (USA)?
Prospective jurors are questioned about their backgrounds and biases before being chosen to sit on a jury.
Case of OJ Simpson?
Prosecution wanted white jurors, defence wanted black jurors. P believed (wrongly) women would judge more harshly (domestic abuse). D team hired jury consultant. P dismissed theirs on day 2 & disregarded his advice & didn’t use all challenges.
Defence opinion - data predicted black American women least likely to convict. Presumption black Americans would be receptive to view that corrupt racist police officers planted evidence
Prosecution ignored this and relied on OJs history of wife-beating - also favoured black women.
8 black women 1 black man 1 Latino man 2 white women 5 thought physical force sometimes justified 2 college education 5 negative experience of police 9 thought unlikely guilty because good footballer
Trial lasted 8 months
Deliberation 4 hours
Consultants found that black women took a dislike to the prosecutor referring to her as a castrating bitch.
Well-educated jurors might have been more likely to truth DNA evidence.
Not guilt on all charges
What are jury responsibilities?
Responsible for deciding, based on facts of case, if guilty or not of the offence charged with.
Must reach verdict by considering only evidence introduced in court and the directions of the judge.
Will be taken into the jury room and allowed no outside communication at all, with the exception of notes to the court registrar.
What is meant by jury comprehension?
How much they understand
Law terminology is technical and culturally bound.
- can lead to misunderstandings by juries
- trial complexity is a problem for jurors
- difficulty in understanding
Wagstaff et al (2007) complex cases require more cognitive work
Heuer and Penrod (1995) more info = less confident jurors became in verdict
Jury comprehension models?
Story model
Common sense justice model
Transportation imagery model
What is the story model?
Pennington and Hastie (1991)
Active, constructive comprehension
Information moulded into a story
Different jurors may construct different stories, and arrive at different verdicts.
Principles of the story model?
Coverage - accounts for evidence presented
Coherence - consistent, plausible and complete
Uniqueness
What is the common sense justice model?
Finkel and groscup (1997)
People have different conceptualisations of the law
Discrepancies between the law and common sense (common sense normally wins)
E.g. previous experience, stereotypes can bias jurors
What is the transportation imagery model?
Green and brock (2000)
Empathy for protagonists.
Vivid mental imagery
Disconnect from physical world
Feel absorbed in the narrative
Story consistent beliefs
Greater story acceptance
