Jury Selection History of Jury Trials Early juries defendant s neighbors Not neutral parties the Constitution The Jury Pool Jury Selection and Service Act 1789 right to impartial juries in criminal and most civil cases as amendments to Jurors must be fair cross section of community Potential jurors are selected primarily from voter registration list Some states use driver IDs Not a lot of poor people sitting on juries Assembling a Jury Venire Random sample of potential jurors in pool summoned to appear One day or one trial system widely adopted Approximately 20 are no shows 2nd layer of bias Variety of excuses eliminate some deselection Undo hardship and extreme inconvenience Voir Dire To speak the truth Attorneys and judge interview potential jurors ask questions Lawyers use challenges to remove jurors Challenges for causes You ve done something that is a conflict of interest Such as being accused of a similar crime Peremptory challenges You can excuse someone without giving an explanation Limits on Challenges Cognizable Groups Groups that are protected from peremptory challenges Gender race LGBTQ status Height size religious based beliefs moral beliefs NOT protected Foster vs Chatman 2016 Prosecutors violated constitution by using all challenges to remove black jurors A study of over 300 criminal jury trials held over 10 years In 93 of the trials the state struck a higher percentage of black jurors than not Significant under representation of African American serving on juries A Louisiana Study black jurors Blackstriking Representativeness Bias at every level community constituency Can any group of 12 jurors or fewer be fully representative of a much larger Can any one person be expected to represent the views of a particular Art and Science of Jury Selection Determining which potential jurors are least likely to support a side of a case Physical characteristics and first impressions Do they seem arrogant Shy Religious Well put together Information from voir dire procedures and written questionnaires Would you describe yourself as religious Have you ever been misdiagnosed by a doctor Social Media and Juror Selection Lawyers viewing jurors online profiles and postings is legal Personal internet postings are not private American Bar Association social media guidelines Juror internet presence may be investigated in advance or during trial Direct online communication and deceptive information gathering behavior with jurors is prohibited Research on Jury Selection Are lawyers good at helping their case by removing the right jurors A study of 12 criminal trials Formed a shadow jury with discarded jurors A shadow jury is 12 other people who resemble the 12 jurors who also observe the trial to see if they reach the same decision Almost no differences Defenders slightly better Some lawyers better than others Forensic Psychology Job Jury Consultants Data driven approach supplemental questionnaires Use of mock jurors shadow jury Analyze supplemental juror questionnaires They assist in jury selection based on research conducted by social scientists Research on Trial Consultants Effectiveness depends on skill level of lawyer they re assisting Contribution may be greater when case is close or lawyer is less skilled Could tilt the case Case specific attitude measurements can be very effective Juror Science Characteristics Juror characteristics and verdict prediction Age income education association is not reliably predictive of trial judgment Gender depends on nature of crime Women are harsher with abusers and molesters Juror Characteristics and Attitudes Some personality tendencies are modestly predictive Locus of Control Internal locus External locus Belief in a Just World Authoritarianism Do things happen based on our own decisions Do things happen because the world is out to get you The world is a just place where people get what they deserve Conventional values rigid beliefs identify with authority figures Similarity Leniency Hypothesis Does being more similar to the defendant make jurors more lenient Similarity produces leniency only when evidence is inconclusive and similar jurors outnumber dissimilar jurors Risk of boomerang effect If the evidence is strong similarity may cause jurors to be more harsh At a certain point it reflects poorly on you Investigations have only addressed race and gender similarity
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