Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Examining The Impact Of Competency To Stand Trial And Judicial Instructions On Ngri Verdicts, Erin K. O'Donnell

Student Theses

Objective: The current study tests whether jury-eligible adults follow judicial instructions to disregard information about a defendant’s pretrial competency status when deciding whether he is guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity. Hypotheses: It was anticipated, because of the effects of hindsight bias, that defendants who were previously found competent to stand trial would be less likely to be found NGRI than a defendant who previously was deemed incompetent but has been restored to competency for trial. We also predicted that judicial instructions to disregard pretrial competency status would not effectively eliminate the effect of competency status without an …