Jurors who speak up and are opinionated are more likely to be excused than jurors who speak little or in a less opinionated manner. Wigley (1999) had 640 jurors in actual cases, of whom 225 were ultimately excused, complete psychological tests before going through voir dire...
Jurors are expected to provide candid and honest answers in voir dire. Attorney-conducted and judge-conducted voir dire is not equally effective in eliciting this self-disclosure...
Jurors often have strong attitudes about sex, abuse, and the protection of children that affect their ability to be fair and impartial in sex abuse trials. In 1997, Vidmar observed 849 prospective jurors in 25 Canadian criminal trials involving charges of sexual abuse, noting the percent of jurors self-reporting the inability to be fair and impartial in these types of cases...
Legally, the severity of a plaintiff's injury is irrelevant to decisions about liability. Although injury severity is directly relevant to the issue of compensation, an effect on the prior determination of liability would constitute an extralegal bias. Bornstein (1998) conducted two studies examining whether the severity of a plaintiff's injury affected jurors' verdicts of liability...
Jurors' attitudes about the death penalty are important to the outcome of capital cases and jury selection assistance has a demonstrable impact on sentencing recommendations. Nietzel and Dillehay (1986) report a study that examined the outcomes of 35 capital trials where a jury consultant was used in 17 cases, and no jury consultant used in the other 18 cases...
Horowitz and Bordens (1990) studied the effects of bifurcated versus unitary trials in a mass toxic tort case that was based on the facts of Wilhoite v. Olin Corp., CV 83-5021 (N.D. Ala. 1985). In this research, over 760 jurors heard, in some form, a four-hour videotape that presented issues of causation, liability, compensatory damages and punitive damages. Some jurors participated in a unitary trial, hearing all the issues at one time before rendering a verdict. Other jurors participated in a bifurcated trial, rendering verdicts after causation, liability and/or compensatory damages, before proceeding to punitive damages...
Attorneys often have witnesses undergo simulated direct- and cross-examination to prepare for deposition or trial testimony. Witnesses additionally can be trained in communication skills. Boccaccini (and colleagues, 2004; 2005) studied the effectiveness of testimony simulation and communication skills training from both witnesses' and jurors' points of view...
Jurors evaluate more than the evidence at trial. Jurors also judge the appearance of a criminal defendant. Conti (2004) conducted two studies to determine whether jurors stereotype criminal offenders as having facial hair...
Judicial instructions to ignore inadmissible evidence typically do not eliminate the impact of that evidence on jurors. Consistent with this common research finding, Steblay and colleagues (2006) report that...
Two recent studies examined jurors' response to psychological testimony. One research study explored whether jurors focus on the content of the testimony or on the experts' credentials. The second research study explored jurors' expectations for the content of that testimony...