Jury Juries represent one form of legal decision making which is the process of using procedural and substantive law to settle disputes heard in public forums A jury is a group of people convened to make a legal decision by functioning a trier of fact Juror person who sits on a jury A group of ordinary citizens who are selected more or less at random to represent the general population and serve as impartial triers of fact in a criminal or civil court hearing evidence deliberating in secrecy reaching a decision by a vote and communicating the decision often without giving reasons The History of Juries Viking Age Britain Danelaw the Vikings who settled England were mostly Danes Types of Juries Grand Jury o Comprises a large panel of jurors who consider allegations of crimes or less commonly provide financial oversight of public institutions to determine if there has been any wrongdoing and whether further investigation or prosecution is warranted o Large group o Who sit in a closed court or privately and hear evidence presented by a complaint or prosecutor although they have the authority to compel additional testimony o Only used in the U S o Also known as trial jury o Small group of jurors who serve as a trier of fact in a criminal or civil trial under the guidance of a judge who interprets and instructs them with respect to matters of law o Sits in open court to hear evidence presented by all parties with little or no influence over what or how evidence is presented o Most commonly used Petit Jury Paradigmatic Models of Jury Decision Making Assume that people s thoughts processes are mechanical or rule governed in nature and can be conceptualized in terms of the application of basic logical operators to information Tabula rasa blank state Used to explain the specific cognitive processes used by triers of fact to infer causality and evaluate arguments within the legal context o Cognitive Tabula Rasa o Make associations o Perform inductive tasks e g causal reasoning o Develop evaluate how world works 2 types o Simple Association Models Require only classical or operant conditioning and have no need to include concepts related to abstract learning or knowledge structure o Connectionist Models Posit that abstract learning or knowledge structures may emerge out of simple associations but they are implicit or hidden Narrative Models of Jury Decision Making Also called explanatory models Assume that people think about the world in terms of stories particularly when they think about interactions among human beings People strive to explain what has happened is happening or might happen in the future and this explanation in turn determines their reaction or actions Stories have 3 basic characteristics o Particularity o Temporality o Coherence or Unity them NM Legal Decision Making Processes o Story Construction How triers of fact evaluate information presented to o Verdict Representation Process in which triers of fact understand the legal system they must reach o Story Classification Process by which tries of fact determine which decision or verdict fits their preferred narrative best Pretrial Publicity Are jurors exposed to pretrial publicity more likely to believe person is guilty Are jurors more aware of evidence that may be inadmissible Pretrial Publicity Kramer Kerr and Carroll 1990 o Pretrial publicity that was presented shortly before mock jurors were presented with the evidence lead to more negative outcomes after deliberation and this was especially pronounced when the pretrial publicity was emotionally arousing Addressing Bias in the Jury Pool o Three options to overcome bias Continuation Change of venue Judicial Instruction Continuation o Trial is delayed so any biasing effects can dissipate o Infrequently granted o Limitations Potential loss of evidence e g witnesses may move die or forget Jurors may not forget Change of Venue o Requires moving the trial to another community o The party requesting the change must demonstrate a reasonable likelihood that the community is biased against the defendant o Granted at times o Judicial Instructions Pretrial Publicity Judge instructs jury to ignore Pre trial publicity o On balance the evidence indicates that pretrial publicity has a negative effect on trial outcome in spite of Continuance maybe they ll forget in time Change of Venue maybe this community wasn t paying attention Judicial instructions to ignore the information o May influence outcome even when jurors believe they can ignore the publicity History of Juvenile Justice Illinois in 1899 Illinois Juvenile Justice Court Act created a separate division within the adult court to deal with juveniles and this was expanded just a few years later to become an independent juvenile court o Was designed to provide a separate system for dealing with all youth in need of protection o This prototype juvenile court had jurisdiction under youth of 16 who were delinquent neglected or dependent 1910 32 states adopted same provision 1925 all but 2 States Juvenile delinquents o Delinquent acts under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court included criminal acts for which adults could be charged but also status offenses o Primary focus of juvenile court is rehabilitation and protection and the courts quickly adopted the doctrine of parens patriae o Parens patriae Courts were seen in a paternalistic benevolent role and the State had the right to intervene the lives of youth even over the parents objection when it considered intervention in the child best interest Kent v United States 1966 Landmark case establishing the right of young offenders in juvenile court Morris A Kent was arrested at age 14 for housebreaking and purse snatching At age 16 he was arrested after his fingerprints were found on the site of a housebreaking robbery and rape Interrogated by police for 7 hours Admitted His attorney was notified that the case might be transferred to adult court but attorney voiced his objection and insisted on evaluation from 2 psychiatrist who said that Kent was a victim of severe psychopathology and 1 psychologist The attorney submitted a motion to the court arguing that Kent could be rehabilitated if retained under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court and also requested access to Kent s social service record Judge did not rule on these motions Judge ruled that Kent should be waived to adult court Found not guilty by reason of insanity NGRI on rape charge Found guilty of housebreaking and