Corporate defendants preparing for trial face a hostile environment from jurors. Corporate defendants must battle not only the charges against them, but also jurors' negative attitudes about corporate America. Vinson and Perlut (2003) report jury research conducted in actual cases, and describe jurors' attitudes that corporate defendants must overcome at trial...
Jurors often award greater damages against corporate defendants than individuals for the same behavior. Is it because a corporate defendant has deeper pockets (i.e., more financial resources) than individuals? Hans and Ermann (1989) asked two groups of mock jurors to decide the same civil lawsuit, with the only difference between the cases given to the jurors being that one group of jurors heard the defendant was a corporation (The Jones Corporation), while the other group of jurors heard the defendant was an individual (Mr. Jones)...
Prosecutors and defense attorneys present religious appeals and testimony about a defendant's religious activities at trial to influence capital jurors' sentencing. Religious appeals have been used in several high profile trials. In the trial of Andrea Yates, the mother in Texas who drowned her five children in her bathtub, the prosecutor told the jury "It was wrong in the eyes of God and it was wrong in the eyes of the law." In the trial of Susan Smith, the mother who killed her two sons and invented a carjacking story to cover up the crime, the defense attorney told the
The wording of a question affects witnesses answers to it. Changing only the verb, an adjective, or even just the article in a question is sufficient to affect a witness' answer. First, using differentially intense verbs (e.g., smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted) in a question asking about an event (e.g., a traffic accident) alters a witness' answer...
Question wording influences the answer witnesses provide. A response about the number of times a certain action or event occurred is not independent of the wording of the question used to elicit the answer. Loftus (1975) reports a study finding that people's estimated frequency of use of headache products are dependent on (1) possible answers that are included as part of the question, and (2) the adverb used in the question...
When jurors first start deliberations, most have an opinion about the guilt or innocence of a criminal defendant. Garvey and colleagues (2004) recently analyzed reports of 3,000 jurors in criminal trials in four major metropolitan areas to determine the primary influences on a juror's first vote...
Witnesses can offer more or fewer details in their testimony, and these details can be trivial or central. Research suggests that when witnesses offer testimony that is more detailed, even when the details are trivial, they are perceived to be more credible...
At the end of trials, judges give jurors a set of instructions that explain the laws that are applicable to the case and that direct jurors to reach a verdict in accordance with those laws. Greene and Johns (2001) investigated the extent to which jurors understand judicial instructions in negligence cases...
Because of the nearly unrestricted use of leading questions, cross-examination provides opportunity to influence jurors through questions designed to impart information to the jury. Kassin and colleagues (1990) tested whether jurors' perceptions of an expert witness can be influenced by leading cross-examination questions...
Deposed witnesses are not always available for trial, and so the testimony is read by a reader selected by the attorney presenting the witness' testimony. Jurors judge more than the content of the read testimony - they also judge the reader. Kassin (1983) found that opinions of a witness are influenced by the demeanor of the deposition testimony reader...