In criminal cases, jurors frequently are instructed in, and given a verdict form with, multiple verdict options in the form of lesser included charges. The most severe verdict option (e.g., murder) is instructed first, with lesser included options (e.g., manslaughter) decided afterwards. The sequence in which jurors make decisions influences the verdicts they reach...

Attorneys have considerable control over the verdict form provided civil juries. At times, a general verdict form is used, where the jury is called on to answer one or two global questions . At other times, the jury answers a series of specific questions relating to the material issues in the case. The type of verdict form jurors receive can influence their verdicts. Schmidt and Diamond (1998) examined the effect of verdict forms on liability judgments in a products liability case. Jurors given a general verdict form were nearly twice as likely...

The general safety practices of a company, even when unrelated to the case at hand, can influence jurors' products liability verdicts...

Almost 20% of the U.S. population age 5 and older speak a language at home other than English. Ewing and colleagues (2008) recently studied whether the language in which a plaintiff testifies influences the outcome in a personal injury trial...

Hispanic defendants can be represented by attorneys of the same or a different race. Espinoza (2005) studied jurors' treatment of Mexican American defendants when they were represented by either a Mexican American or a European American attorney...

Kassin and Garfield (1991) investigated whether jurors are influenced by crime scene videotapes. As part of the presentation of a murder case, some jurors viewed a crime scene videotape of close-ups of a bloodied young man who had been stabbed to death and left lying in the street. Other jurors did not see the crime scene video. Jurors viewing the crime scene video...

Jurors are often presented with some negative outcome (e.g., an injured plaintiff), and are asked to assess whether that outcome was foreseeable or preventable. Can jurors disregard outcome information, or does this knowledge bias their decisions?...

Jurors favor attractive defendants. A large body of research shows that attractive defendants are found guilty less often, and given lighter sentences when found guilty, than unattractive defendants (see, e.g., Burke et al., 1990; Mazzella and Feingold, 1994). The advantage of physically attractive defendants does not hold for all crimes...

Legal negligence rules hold auditors responsible for plaintiff losses only when the quality of the audit that is provided fails to meet standards of care. The standard of care is a minimum standard, and meant to be independent of the severity of the consequences of audit failure...

Ideally, jurors asked to render a verdict in a criminal trial make judgments of guilt or innocence based solely on the trial evidence, which is presumably diagnostic of guilt or innocence. Information diagnostic of guilt or innocence includes eyewitness accounts, physical evidence, and the existence of an alibi. How does information not diagnostic of guilt or innocence - a defendant's physical attributes or character - affect verdicts? Can such non-diagnostic evidence dilute information diagnostic of guilt?...