Experts, Shoot Back at ‘Hired Gun’ Assumptions
By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm: Are jurors going to believe someone paid to come into the courtroom and deliver an opinion that supports the side who’s paying? While the jurors’ assent may not be as automatic as the experts and their clients hope it would be, in courtrooms every day and across the country, jurors do follow … Experts, Shoot Back at ‘Hired Gun’ Assumptions Read More »
Do Republicans and Democrats agree about the seriousness of crimes? | Online Jury Research Update
Historically, Republicans and Democrats have differed in their views about crime. Recently, Republicans and Democrats have changed their views of crime, law enforcement and the seriousness of various offenses. Robert W. McGee and colleagues (2022) explored the relationship between political party affiliation and jurors' attitudes toward a variety of specific criminal offenses. More than 500 jury-eligible, young, educated adults of varying backgrounds, genders, religions, ethnicities and political persuasions were asked to grade how serious they considered 75 specific crimes....
Don’t Look for AI to Pick Your Jury…Yet
By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm: I don’t know if anything has ever in such a short time moved from being a pretty esoteric science topic to being a concern on everyone’s lips… but ChatGPT could probably tell me. With literally billions of uses per month, the artificial intelligence-driven chatbot has captured our attention and created a mix of excitement and dread. It has become a cliche to talk about how dramatic the shift will be as the technology moves toward displacing tasks like writing and customer service. It is also a cliche to talk about how the “jury is still out” on
Are criminal defense computer animations more persuasive to jurors than still photographs? | Online Jury Research Update
Computer-generated animations, which recreate or illustrate an alleged sequence of events, are increasingly being used by lawyers to accompany witness testimony. Visual aids such as computer-generated animations are designed not only to depict events, but also to influence jurors' beliefs about those events. Rempel and Burke (2022) examined the effect of visual aids on juror beliefs about a criminal defendant's testimony in a second-degree murder case that was based on a real civil case in Los Angeles County...
Just in Time Jury Consulting
A series of recent experiences pertaining to a case on which we were ramping up made me consider the timeline of jury consulting. In the world of business, and especially manufacturing, there is a concept of just in time production. With just in time production, the raw materials for a “thing” arrive at the production facility only when they are needed. Things, often generically called “widgets,” are then assembled with the ingredients which have arrived on time. In the last several years, throughout the economic changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been much discussion about supply chain
Treat Big Talkers as Jury Leaders
By Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm: It is a jury’s first task: Pick a foreperson, someone who will lead the discussion, help the group walk through the evidence, and work their way to a decision. Who gets picked? The person who is experienced at being a juror? The person who holds a leadership role in their work life? The person who is the most knowledgeable or intelligent? The answer from the research is that it is none of those. What best predicts the emergence of leaders in a small group is talkativeness. In other words, the person who speaks the most, regardless