Typically, we think that racial diversity on juries is valuable because it offers the perspective of a minority group member. Recent research by Sommers (2006) suggests that racial diversity also encourages majority group members to re-think their perspectives...
Men and women serve as expert witnesses every day in America's courtrooms on topics ranging from automotive engineering to reasonable standards for elder care. Some topics of expertise are culturally associated with males, while others are culturally associated with females. Some topics of expertise seem very complex, while others appear less complex to jurors. Two recent studies examined the credibility of male and female expert witnesses on culturally-associated and complex topics...
Jurors are often instructed by a judge to disregard inadmissible testimony after objection by an attorney. Wilson (2004) recently tested, in two studies, whether an attorney's objection increases the likelihood that the objected-to testimony influences jurors' verdicts. The first study found that jurors overweight testimony that follows an objection, and that...
A recent study by Kulik et al. (2003) explored the effects of judges' personal characteristics (gender, race, age, and political affiliation) and case characteristics on the outcomes of federal cases of hostile environment sexual harassment. Results revealed...
The O.J. Simpson trial spawned extensive discussion of "playing the race card." Racial issues arise in America's courtrooms every day, and attorneys must decide whether to raise the racial issue or leave it unstated. A recent study by Sommers (2006) examined the effect that asking about racial biases in voir dire had on determinations of guilt of a black defendant...
The use of expert witnesses in courtroom proceedings has become commonplace in the American judicial system. Some jurors are more favorable than others toward the use of expert witnesses. Recent research by Griffith et al. (2005)...
ury selection is an art based on science, with attorneys striking jurors they believe to be closed and resistant to the arguments they will be presenting. Jurors' beliefs about emotion, and the relationship between emotion and reason, have been found to affect determinations of guilt in a criminal trial. A recent study by Spackman et al. (2006) found that jurors' beliefs about emotion and reason influenced their determination of whether a defendant was guilty of murder or manslaughter...
In a recent study by Poser et al. (2003), 197 mock jurors awarded damages after they received instructions on noneconomic damages. One third of the mock jurors received instructions in which loss of enjoyment of life was not identified as a distinct element of noneconomic damages. Another third...
In recent research, Bornstein (2004) found that the type of expert testimony presented in a personal injury case influenced individual verdicts...
In a simulated products liability trial, Adams (2006) recently tested the effects of bifurcating decisions regarding compensatory and punitive damage awards...