Law Commons^™

Exploring Jury Nullification: Its Political History, Current, And Potential Impact On Policy, David Harold Penny

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Jury nullification (JN) is when a jury knows a defendant is legally guilty, but states they are not guilty, believing that their verdict better serves justice in that case. The problem is the violation of the Constitution’s equal protection clause for all citizens, caused by the intentional omission in most judges’ instructions to juries of JN. The purpose of the study was to fill the gap in the literature on jury behavior and address the problem of JN. The study framework is chaos theory as applied by Horowitz to jury behavior. It describes judges and lawmakers mistrust of juries associated …

Exploring Jury Nullification: Its Political History, Current, And Potential Impact On Policy, David Harold Penny

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Jury nullification (JN) is when a jury knows a defendant is legally guilty, but states they are not guilty, believing that their verdict better serves justice in that case. The problem is the violation of the Constitution’s equal protection clause for all citizens, caused by the intentional omission in most judges’ instructions to juries of JN. The purpose of the study was to fill the gap in the literature on jury behavior and address the problem of JN. The study framework is chaos theory as applied by Horowitz to jury behavior. It describes judges and lawmakers mistrust of juries associated …

Putting The Microscope On Crime Labs: The Effects Of Evidence Complexity And Laboratory Type On Jurors' Perceptions Of Forensic Evidence, Miliaikeala S.J. Heen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An experiment was conducted to test the effects of evidence complexity and laboratory type on jurors' perceptions of forensic evidence. The study specifically focused on three types of labs: public labs, private labs, and "corporate labs." Public labs are managed by a federal, state, or local law enforcement agency, where evidence is usually analyzed internally at an agency. Private labs are those that have been formed as private businesses to provide services to federal, state, and local crime labs with overflow work. Corporate labs are managed by major retail corporations, and primarily service the needs of their store businesses, but …

Ghana’S Jury System On Trial, Dennis D. Adjei

Duke Law Master of Judicial Studies Theses

Civil cases in Ghana are tried by the bench. Criminal cases are also handled by bench trials, except for certain indictable offenses, which may be tried by a judge or jury. Not all serious offenses are tried by jury. And a trend is developing away from jury to bench trials. For example, treason is punishable by death, but the case is determined in a bench trial by three High Court Judges. Robbery, which had been an indictable offense, is now tried by either jury or bench trial at the discretion of the Attorney-General; and prosecutors consistently have been opting for …

Receptivity Of Capital Jurors To Mitigating Factors Of Mental Illness, Intellectual Disability, And Situational Impairments In Death Penalty Decisions : The Capital Trial Analyzed As A Mitigating "Weight And Counterweight" To Premature Decisions And Pro-Death Bias, Leona Deborah Jochnowitz

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This research presents aspects of juror receptivity to mitigating factors of mental, cognitive/intellectual and situational impairments in capital sentencing decisions. The study examined types of mental factors, as well as the gender of defendants, the aggravating nature of the crime and victim vulnerability. An exploratory cross-tabulation analysis evaluated the percentages and relationships between juror closed-ended CJP survey responses to mental sentencing factors and mental evidence presented at trial for 38 cases. While the sample size was too small in some cells for significance testing, the percentages demonstrated patterns. A detailed qualitative analysis of 12 cases with strong evidence of mental …

An Empirical Study Of Appointed Counsel Effectiveness In Jury Trials, James Patrick Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Anecdotal evidence supports the belief among indigent individuals who are assigned defense counsel that they would be better represented by privately retained counsel. This perspective jeopardizes attorney effectiveness by reducing communication and trust between the attorney and client. Research on the effectiveness of counsel is sparse. The purpose of this quantitative study was to bridge this gap in knowledge by comparing the effectiveness of privately retained and publicly appointed counsel between 2008 and 2013, both before and after the imposition of state-wide compensation limitations on publicly appointed defense counsel. The theoretical framework was Stuntz's theory, which stresses that one part …

Group Decision Making In The Jury Context: A Combined Theoretical Approach, Larissa Angelique Schmersal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Much of the extant research on jury decision making has been conducted at the juror level, examining the individual decisions of mock jurors. Although studying mock juror decisions provides initial insight into jury decision making, studying the deliberation process should be a priority for future research. Few theoretical models have been developed to examine the decision process of the jury. The social combination and the social communication approaches provide some insight into this process; however, analysis of these methods is scarce due, in part, to their limited applicability.

The current study examined the jury deliberation using a combined theoretical approach. …

The Tennessee Death Penalty: Prosecutors, Juries And The Impact Of Race, Kristin Amber Wagers

Doctoral Dissertations

The impact of race within the American criminal justice system has seen long-term debate and has been studied by numerous social scientists. This dissertation examines the criminal justice system by analyzing data created by the Tennessee courts to determine whether race impacts the administration of Tennessee’s death penalty. This dissertation examines whether race impacts the overall administration of Tennessee’s death penalty, a Tennessee prosecutor’s decision to seek death, and a Tennessee jury’s decision to impose death. The impact of race at each stage is analyzed by logistic regression to isolate the defendant’s race, the victim’s race, and the racial interaction …

Mental Disorder Labelling As An Extralegal Variable In Mock Jury Deliberations, Kristin B. Wallengren

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Previous research has shown that a number of characteristics of trial participants (extralegal variables) can and do influence juror’s judgements. This is of importance as only the legally relevant facts of the case should be considered during a trial. The present study investigates the influence of victim characteristics on the juror decision making process during deliberation and the judgements made about the victim, crime and defendant in a mock jury setting, as well as investigating mock juror gender differences. A representative sample of people eligible for jury duty in Western Australia viewed a video vignette depicting a trial, in which …

Mock Jurors' Judgements Of The Victim, Crime And Defendant As A Function Of Victim Race And Deliberation, Lynley V. Poli

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Extra-legal variables are factors within a trial that are logically irrelevant to the determination of a verdict. They are deemed extra-legal they are extra to the law and are not prescribed in the relevant statutes upon which the relevant issue must be decided. Research investigating judicial decision-making, however, demonstrates that extra-legal variables often affect jurors' judgements and improperly influence their decision-making. Examples of extra-legal variables include the personal attributes of trial participants, e.g., the victim's physical attractiveness, socio-economic status, and age. Studies conducted in North America indicate that the race of the victim and defendant inappropriately influences jurors' decision-making. However, …

Misguided Instructions: Do Jurors Accurately Understand The Law In Death Penalty Trials?, Chasity Anne Stoots-Fonberg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees individuals’ right to trial by an impartial jury. However, empirical research indicates that the jury system is flawed, especially regarding judicial sentencing instructions. More specifically, jurors frequently misunderstand or misinterpret State patterned instructions. On a more encouraging note, there is evidence that comprehension of jury instructions can be improved. Thus, this research assessed improvement in juror comprehension using revised sentencing instructions. For the current investigation, participants included 201 volunteers called for jury duty in Western Tennessee. Data were generated via a questionnaire, which allowed for the collection of information relating to participants’ …