Factors Affecting Jury decision Making: Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Question 1

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

What the Flipping Heck is A Jury?

Answer 1

12 People with a minimum age of 18

randomly selected from the electuin ballet

Jurors either take a Religous Oath by reading a card and placing their hand on a Holy Book of their choice

or a Affirm
which they simply read from a card

this is so they tell Only the truth and be honest and stuff

they go to Court and witness the Defenfant and the Prosecuters statments, evidence provided by the court, Laywers qs, witnesses, Cross examen witnesses, the deffences witnesses then the Prosecutirs Witnesses

The Judge then Sums all this up

and they go off and disscuss it

ONLY WITH OTHER JURORS OTHERWISE ITS ILLEGAL

then they come to a verdict on whether the defendant is Guilty or not (or a retrial is organised is not 10/12 agree)

and then the Judge sentences them
and sets out the terms for this

then they can apply to be paid for missing work for jury duty
and go home

Question 2

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

What the Flipping Geckos is a

MOCK JURY

Answer 2

due to the study of real jurys being OUTLWAED in the Uk and USa

Psychologists oftern use mock jurys

made of a group of ppts, made to condcider a case and make judgments about it

They take part in a staged trial
in a re enactment of a courtroom

each ppt takes a role

e.g Jury member or Judge

the Jury will hear a summary of both sides of a case (its a mock case)

evidence is shown form both sides

either in a writen scenario ir a video clip

the jury will then discuss the case in a seperate room

this takes 2 hours

researchers may observe this via a One way mirror

Question 3

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Mock Jury Strengths

Answer 3

• Usefull for researching specific senarios, as variables can be manioulated to get a situation that is sim to one that occured irl,

so able to apply the research to real life, and possibly use it to improve real life jurys

• Jurors are selected at random, simular to the random selection from the election ballet in real life

increasing its mundane realism and Generalisability

• Controlled enviroment decreases the effect of extraneous variables such as distracting noises averting attention from evidence

allowing fir cause and effect to be esstablished between factors and Jury decisions

showing high internal validity

Question 4

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Mock Jury WEAKNESSES

Answer 4

• there are no stakes and ppts know they are acting and the trial isnt real, so no emotion in decision making, making it more logical, unlike real life where emotions are mixed in, lowering the Ecological Validity as it is dissimular to real life jury experiences

• the real Trial may take weeks, so a mock jury is too short, lowering its task validity

• NOT the same enviroment as in real life, reducing the ecological validity, as it isnt the same experice as in real life, due to atmospheric differences affecting decision making and thought processes

Question 5

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Shadow Jury

Answer 5

A Shadow Jury is a Group of People Hired by a trial consultant to watch trials

and report their imoressions of the evidence presented

they are asked to make a verdict of Guilty or not guilty based in what they see

their decision is carefully monitered in a quiet room where all deliberations are recorded

attorneys use this feedback in the development of their trial strategies

this group will sit in on a REAL LIFE trial, oftern in the Gallery

IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THE SHADOW JURY HAS NO INFLUENCE OVER THE TRIAL

Question 6

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Shadow Jury

STRENGTHS

Answer 6

• Takes place with a real case with real +/- evidence, real results and real factors affecting Jury decision making JDM

making it more credible and have higher ecological validity due to taking place in real life so can therefore be applied to it easily

• less stress than the real jury if they know they are the shadow jury (they were hired), this makes it more ethical than real life too

Question 7

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

SHADOW JURY

weaknesses

Answer 7

• Shadow jury has no influence over the verdict, if they know this (they do, was hired) then no pressure, unlike a real jury, meaning they may not try as hard to uncover the truth and make sure their decision is accurate, lowering the internal validity
due to the extraneous variable of them not trying to decifer if guilty or not as no consequencs, so demand characteristic, so less link between factors and jury decision
lowering cause and affect
so internal val low

+ unlike real life which has consequences so may have lower eco as disimular to process in real life, so harder to apply results to it

• Lack of control of extraneous variables (e.g. gender, age of person on trial) difficult to establish cause/ effect between factors and jury decision, lowers int val

• May not be a randomly selected jury

therefore not representive of a real jury

so lowers Eco validity as disimular and harder to apply results to irl

and Lowers generalisabilty as Not random sample, so less rep of gen pop

Question 8

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

what is it?

Answer 8

Media and other coverage of a case before the trial takes place is known as pretrial publicity

and it is assume that during the case the Jurors will have read or heard about the case if a lot of publicity

which raises the question whether a fair trial can take place under these conditions as the jury may or may not be swayed depending on what they’ve heard or read

What a jury has read and heard about a case may produce Prejudice when it comes to trial

It may be hard to get 12 people who don’t know about the case to be on the jury if the publicity is widespread

PTP can include facts about the crimes such as details of the defendants pass defenses and emotional details such as opinions and personal details

Research suggests that exposure to ptp causes jurors to be more conviction prone

especially when the publicity is designed to elict an emotional response rather than present facts

Question 9

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

gagging order

Answer 9

Courts may pose a gagging order on the media

especially in high-profile cases

to avoid problems of ptp from affecting the jury decision and choosing the jury in the first place

the defendant is entitled to be tried fairly by a jury which is why the gagging order is put into place

but of the idea of free speech musr also be considered

However Trial by newspaper is not an option

Question 10

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Example of PTP affecting Jury Decision

Sam Sheppard

Answer 10

Sam Sheppard 1954-66 usa

News reported on the trial which affected the juries outcome

His wife was murdered in july 1954 and Sam was arrested in in july 1954 and the trial began in 1954 by December

The news frequently aired possible charges that he could be given however none of the charges were to do with what he was convicted for

3 weeks before the trial newspapers published names and addresses of the 12 jurors so they got letters and calls about the trial

which took place over two weeks before an election during which the chief prosecutor and the judge were candidates for judgeship

20 reporters were in the trial sat by the bar near the jury which made a lot of noise distracting them as there was free range of movement

and while jurors were told not to look at the bias media some did anyway

this led to Sam being convicted and spending 10 years in prison

till on the 24th of October 1966 when a second trial was done as the first trial was not faithful and a mockery of Justice

the conviction was overturned and he was freed in 1966 after blood splatter evidence suggesting the murderer was left-handed while Sam was right-handed

showing how pretrial publicity can affect during decisions during a trial

Question 11

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

link to Reconstructive memory

Answer 11

jurors who were Exposed to publicity from the media may form schemas based on whether the defendant was viewed in a positive or negative light

jurors will mix the information they’ve read in the media such as a newspaper headline with information from the trial this information will then be remembered differently

Confabulation may be used as jurors filling gaps in their knowledge using the schema gain from the media causing the Outlook on the case to become biased

Rationalisation may be used as Jerry may reason about the guilty verdict based on positive or negative schema ?????

Therefore reconstructive memory evaluation points such as allport and postman can be used during AO3 of a pretrial publicity question

Question 12

reducing Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Voir dire

+ SDB

Answer 12

Voir Dire is a method used in the United States of America to combat the effects of ptp

Jurors are questioned by a judge or lawyer to determine their suitability for jury service

(may be bias due to media)

this is to reduce the bias in the jury

BUT

it is a self-report data meaning it may be affected by social desirability bias

Making it useless if the jurors simply lie and state they are not biased to get on the trial

and then be biased affecting the validity of the juries decision

Question 13

Reducing Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Judicial Instruction

Answer 13

Judicial Instruction

This is when the judge States to the jury to not listen to the media

this is to reduce the bias and Prejudice That ptp may cause the jury to have

leading to an invalid decision made by the jury effected by ptp bias

e.g.:

” any decision you make must be based on evidence from in the trial”

a judge could say that

Question 14

Reducing Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Continuance

Answer 14

Continuance

this is when a judge may file for the delay, or change of venue of, the start of the trial

This is to reduce ptps effect on the jury as Press May die down its coverage of the event

Reducing ptp and the BIOS that causes

unless it is an extremely big case then it is likely that the media will return when the trial is back on

or never die down such as in the Amber Heard and Johnny Depp case

Question 15

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Thomas 2010 +

Answer 15

Thomas 2010

looked at the fairness of juries in Nottingham, Winchester and London focusing on the Media reports of the trials

It looked at both high profile cases and shorter ones

and it was found that when jurors recalled the emphasis of Media reports

(short)
66% did not record detail and tended to remember publicity suggesting defendant guilt

In high profile cases 20% of the jurors who did remember me to report about the case found it hard to put reports out to their mind while serving as Jura on the case

Ptp highly effected high-profile cases as it was hard to reduce its influence on the decisions showing how it affects jury decision-making

Making Thomas 2010 good evidence to support the effect of pretrial publicity on jury decision-making

Question 16

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Steblay et al 1999 + ☆

Answer 16

Steblay et al 1999

Carried out meta-analysis to review the effects of ptp on juravertics looked at 44 studies

and found that jurors exposed to negative pretrial publicity were more likely to give a guilty Verdict

than those not exposed to it or exposed to Limited ptp

Meaning that negative ptp affects jury decisions

increasing the chance of guiltly verdict

compared to less ptp or no ptp

meaning that Steblay et al 1999 is evidence suggesting/ supporting ptp effects jury decision making

Question 17

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Honess et al 2003 +

Answer 17

Honess et al 2003

Looked at factual recall and affective emotional recall of ptp and the impact on jury reasoning

They used a simulated fraud trial with 50 mock jurors that were shown a video simulation of trial material

The reasoning of the mock jurors as well as their verdict was recorded

The researchers looked at the effects of recalling the facts and ptp compared with the recall of feelings and thoughts from ptp

they found a highly emotional materials is more likely to be remembered and affect the reasoning against the defendant and increase in the confidence and guilt rather than the recall of facts

This means that emotional material is more like to be remembered and effect the decision against the defendant by increasing the jury’s confidence in the defendants guilt more so than facts themselves

Aka emotional news ptp = affect jury decision making

increased chance of confidence and guilt against the defendants

decreased recall of facts in decision

Showing that Honess 2003 is evidence a supporting the fact that ptp affects jury decision-making

Question 18

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Ogstroff and Vidmar 1994 + ☆

Answer 18

Ogstroff and vidmar 1994

Recruited 121 undergraduates and staff from Simon frazier’s university in British Columbia

the ppts were split into one of four groups

group 1 had no media info and were given a brief account of Mount cashier sexual abuse incidents that were from real life

Group 2 had newspaper articles reporting on the incidents

group 3 had TV reporting on the Instance and

group 4 had both newspapers and TV reporting on the Instance

[Participants were provided with demographic details and completed a preliminary questionnaire regarding their knowledge of the Instance

they were then given stimulai relevant to their condition

finally they completed a questionnaire about the defendant guilt and the effect of Media information]

Both experimental groups were affected emotionally

and both led to more guilty verdicts and longer sentences

participants were also unable to identify themselves as Bias jurors

Shows that all ptp (news +tv) leads to an increase in guilty verdict affecting jury decisions

and they were unaware of being bias
showing how ptp affects real jury

meaning that ogstroff and vidmar 1994 is evidence to support ptp’s effect on jury decision making

Question 19

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

mundane realism - ☆

Answer 19

The dependent variable (jury verdict and sentences ect.) when looking into ptp is not often measured in a valid way:

for example asking the participants to give a sentence in years
which is not something a normal jury would do

as it is something that the judge does

this shows a lack of mundane realism in research looking into ptps effect on jury decision making

Question 20

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

meta analysis is int valid +

Answer 20

Studies that use meta-analysis such as steblay 1999 are valid

as the use lots of study samples that can be merged due to the large sample size

it reduces the participant effects and anomilies that may be present in the data

which increases the internal validity of its results as anomalies are less likely to affect said results improving the link between cause (ptp) and effect (decisions)

Question 21

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

int val experimental methods controls +

Answer 21

some studies in ptp may use experimental methods which involve controls and control groups to be able to establish cause and effect

By isolating independent variables and the measuring dependent variables by controlling extraneous variables

scientific credibility can be given to the findings of these studies

allowing for cause and effects to accurately be established due to the control of these extraneous variables

giving these studies scientific credit ability and internal validity

Question 22

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

generalisability - students
Int Val
Eco

☆☆☆☆

Answer 22

Many studies have been found to use students as their participants

which limits a generalizability of the findings as unable to be generalized to over groups in the population

such as employed workers or other groups that are more likely to be part of juries

as students are more likely to be more analytical in their decisions whereas others may be more prone to ptp and be more emotional in their decision making
Meaning that this is a extraneous variable and a participant variable that affects the establishment of calls and effect in the results of any study leading to said study having low internal validity

Therefore also meaning that there is a lack of ecological validity it’s less likely that students would be the most represented group in a jury

Question 23

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

eco - ☆

Answer 23

Studies using mock juries lack ecological validity as it is not the same environment as a real life jury meaning the experience is not the same as it is in real life

which may affect decision making and thought processes of the jury meaning that they have low ecological validity

Question 24

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

Application

Answer 24

Findings from research into ptp has application

as measures may be put into place to limit Media exposure as much as possible

To reduce ptps effect on jury decision making such as judicial instruction and continuance and voir dire

Question 25

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

alt characteristics of deffender affect jury decision making

Int val - too ☆

Answer 25

An alternative view is that factors affecting jury decision making may not just be ptp but also the characteristics of the defendant

as other factors such as gender of the jury and the Defender can affect jury decision-making

meaning that studies may not be able to take into account all influencing variables

which reduces the internal validity due to all of the confounding variables that may be affecting the jury decision making during a study on ptp

Such as the race gender social class accent attractiveness and attitudes of the Defender

Question 26

Pre-Trial Publicity PTP

eco + real jurors questionaires

Answer 26

In the past real jurys have been asked to complete self-report questionnaires after trial has ended

while there are limitations in self-report data, it provides a rare opportunity to obtain information about decision making in real life

and provide a more reliable account than that of a mock trial

This is because asking real life jurors may provide information about what they did do during a trial whereas mop trials can only record what participants would do in a trial

Meaning these questionnaires have more ecological validity than mock trials as the data being obtained is from real life