Jury Representativeness and Selection Jury Selection Pool Venire drawing the panel of perspective jurors o The more people you draw from the more heterogeneous and mixed the group will be Benefits of diverse groups o Having more diversity tends to work better for problem solving and fact finding and helps taper and prejudices o Idea is to draw a group that is diverse as it can be Studies show that if you get greater diversity in the jury racial ethnic you tend to get more deliberation racially charged topics are discussed more aware of racial concerns and discuss the facts of the case more Diverse jury also means that it s more fair o Example Rodney King had an all white jury posed as an issue To be called to be a juror o 18 o Resident of the state o U S citizen Rigging jury pools community choose Voir Dire Process Limited Voir Dire Limited Voir Dire in group Pool of people you choose from has to be a representative cross section of the o Doesn t have to be who is chosen but it has to be the pool from which you o Asks if anyone has anything that would bias them and then individually Extended Voir Dire ask the person more about the bias Extended Voir Dire o Asked a lot more questions o Asked about things that could potentially be biased o More thorough o More time consuming Done in open court Challenges Challenges for cause appearance of bias o Can exclude someone from a jury for any bias or prejudice o Or if they know someone involved in the case o No limit Peremptory challenges no reason o Can exclude someone for no reason Don t have to provide reason o Out of the court s hands o Based on perception of how that person may or may not be sympathetic to the case o White middle aged males are the prime target Not quite diverse o Men are most likely to be dismissed over women o African Americans are the most questioned o Younger people are often excluded o Limit of 2 o Batson vs Kentucky Dismissed all Black jurors Established that you cannot exclude jurors due to race Focused on prosecution o Powers vs Ohio Reiteration of Batson vs Kentucky Discriminating based on race is against equal protection Focused on prosecution o Edmonson vs Leesville Concrete Company Reiteration of Batson vs Kentucky Discriminating based on race is against equal protection Focused on prosecution o Georgia vs McCollum o J E B vs Alabama Couldn t have the defense make race based challenges Established that you cannot exclude jurors due to gender Lawyer Theories on Jury Voting Implicit personality theory an individual s attorney s preconceptions of how certain attributes are related to certain behaviors the assumptions attorneys have that may affect a jury o Based on broad generalizations o Based on stereotypes One juror verdict sway the jury notion that there s going to be a dominant juror that s going to o Characterize that juror as being extroverted male and taller Similarity leniency hypothesis towards defendants that are most similar to themselves attorneys think that jurors will be more lenient o Men towards men o African Americans towards African Americans Black sheep effect therefore sees them as the black sheep of the community so they see them negatively because they are negatively representing their demographic the juror won t like that the defendant is similar to them and All completely unscientific Primarily based on demographics Demographic Correlates Juror Characteristics o Women more likely to convict in domestic violence sexual assault cases o Men more active role in jury o SES1 higher SES more likely to convict Defendant Characteristics o Attractiveness Attractive defendants are less likely to be found guilty Except in negligent homicide swindling then it doesn t matter how attractive you are o Race o SES Race x type of crime interaction Whites for embezzlements Blacks for negligent homicide Has to do with stereotypes People who are perceived have a low SES are found guilty more Differences aren t that great and effects aren t that strong and get harsher punishments 1 SES Socio economic status Personality Characteristics Authoritarian o More likely to vote for conviction o More likely to impose tougher sentences o Unless the defendant was a police officer Internal external locus of control a result of our control or the world happening to us the degree to which we see events in life being o Internal tend to see things that happen being a result of your behavior I did well because I studied Attribute more responsibility to the defendant o External tend to see things that happen as a result of the world around them More excusing of the defendant I did well It was luck Just world belief they deserve about them It wasn t their fault it was how they were raised etc the extent to which an individual believes that people get what o If something bad happens to someone it means that there s something bad o Victim blaming is a just world belief o A way of assigning blame because it s unsettling that bad things happen to good people by chance Prior jury experience o Increased likelihood of conviction Jury Trial Consulting Hired by attorney paid for by defendant Can be used to decrease a sentence death penalty to life without parole etc Evidence to suggest that they are helpful to some degree Community surveys o Ask open ended questions o What kind of individual that you ideally want to be on the jury Focus groups Mock trial o Pick a focus group from the community and use them to test pat of the attorney s argument and presentation o Run mock trials expanded beyond focus groups o Put forward the whole case Pretrial investigations o Community involvement o Go to church o Characteristics associated with deciding one way or another Voir dire consultation Shadow jury feedback o Help and talk about certain questions are useful for getting the information you need to know if you want them on the jury o Hire people who mirror the demographics of the actual jury and they are shown the proceedings and get feedback as the trial is going on Help with closing opening arguments Witness prep Usually done by sociologists and psychologists Research suggests that it can be affective o Especially with complex issues Used more in civil cases than criminal cases Deliberation What they talk about o 15 Law o 75 Evidence Jury Process Stages o Orientation Selecting a fore person and going over the proceedings Verdict vs Evidence driven Verdict driven vote how many people convict and how many people do not and then discuss o