ttorneys make promises to the jury in opening statements about what the evidence will show. Sometimes the evidence fails to fulfill one or more of these promises. Pyszczynski and colleagues (1981) investigated the effects of a promise made in an opening statement of a criminal trial that went unmet in the presentation of evidence...

The defense can give its opening statement immediately after a prosecutor's opening, or reserve its opening until after the prosecutor's case has been presented to jurors. Wells and colleagues (1985) explored how the timing of a defense attorney's opening statement affected jurors' perceptions and verdicts...

Landsman and Rakos (1994) tested whether judges, due to their training and experience, are better than juries at ignoring biasing or inadmissible material. In this research, 88 judges and 104 jurors rendered liability verdicts on a products liability case...

One way to respond to criminal charges is by claiming that a defendant was induced to engage in illegal behavior by law enforcement. Borgida and Park (1988) found that jurors...

While the issue of race in the courtroom often focuses on jurors and defendants, this issue also extends to attorneys. Boliver (1999) examined how the race of jurors and attorneys influences verdicts in a child abuse/neglect case...

When a female defense attorney defends a man accused of rape, jurors are more likely to believe the case against the defendant is not as strong. Villemur and Hyde (1983) found that in rape trials...

Increasingly, judges are instructing criminal juries about presumption of innocence, burden of proof and reasonable doubt before presentation of evidence, rather than waiting until after the evidence has been presented. The timing of judicial instructions can have a significant impact on verdicts. Kaplan and Wrightsman (1979) examined how the timing of judicial instructions affects jurors' verdicts in criminal cases...

Some cases, courts and jurisdictions rely on juries smaller than 12 persons. At times, litigants give permission to continue a trial with fewer jurors than originally selected. Jury size affects jury decisions, and whether a smaller or larger jury is preferred in any given case depends on the nature of the case, the strength of the evidence, the degree to which deliberation is desired, and a host of other factors...

Recently, Hannaford and colleagues (2002) examined the causes of juror deadlock in 336 non-capital felony jury trials conducted in state courts in Los Angeles County (CA), Maricopa County (AZ), Bronx County (NY), and the District of Columbia (DC) between June 2000 and August 2001. Thirteen percent of these cases hung on one or more of the charges. Juries that hung on at least one charge...