Law Commons^™

Litigation Strategies For Suggestive Identification Evidence, Elaina Welch

Student Theses

To determine the best litigation strategy for defense attorneys presented with suggestive eyewitness evidence, I tested the influence of identifications obtained through in-court and out-of-court identification procedures on jurors’ decision-making. I recruited Mock jurors through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) (N = 375) to watch a videotaped simulation of a robbery trial in which I varied whether the eyewitness made an in-court or out-of-court identification and the suggestiveness of the out-of-court identification procedure. Watching a trial with either an in-court or out-of-court identification procedure increased jurors’ likelihood to convict. Mock jurors who viewed a trial with an out-of-court identification procedure …

Race-Conscious Jury Selection, Anna Offit

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Among the central issues in scholarship on the American jury is the effect of Batson v. Kentucky (1986) on discriminatory empanelment. Empirical legal research has confirmed that despite the promise of the Batson doctrine, both peremptory strikes and challenges for cause remain tools of racial exclusion. But these studies, based on post facto interviews, transcript analysis, and quantitative methods offer little insight into Batson’s critical impact on real-time decision-making and strategy in voir dire. If we increasingly know what kinds of juries are produced in the post-Batson world, we know very little about how they are produced.

This Article addresses …

Awakening The American Jury: Did The Killing Of George Floyd Alter Juror Deliberations Forever?, Tamara F. Lawson

Articles

In the summer of 2020, the witnessing of George Floyd's death triggered an outpouring of public expression far beyond other cases in modern times. While the experience led some to advocate for reform and participate in antiracism rallies, marches, and campaigns, it also forced many others into internal reflection, awareness, and awakening to the knowledge of a lived experience with police different from their own. The gruesome realities of the video were irreconcilable with those prior beliefs and did not comport with any moral or legal standards of dignity. Prior to witnessing George Floyd's death on video at the hands …