Jury Decision Making

Erin York Cornwell.  Opening and Closing the Jury Room Door:  A Sociohistorical Consideration of the 1955 Chicago Jury Project Scandal. This article examines how the six jury deliberations recordings by social scientists and legal scholars from the University of Chicago Law School’s Jury project came to be viewed as a violation of the tradition of trial by jury and a “stepping stone to wrecking the entire system of justice."  (Vol. 31, No. 1)

Deborah R. Baskin and Ira B. Sommers.  Crime-Show-Viewing Habits and Public Attitudes Toward Forensic Evidence: The 'CSI-Effect' Revisted. The present study assesses whether watching crime shows affects attitudes toward forensic evidence and whether these attitudes result in a predisposition toward conviction or acquittal in a criminal trial.   (Vol. 31, No. 1)

Mark S. Hurwitz.  Give Him a Fair Trial, Then Hang Him: The Supreme Court's Modern Death Penalty Jurisprudence. This article discusses the current and future death penalty jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and looks at cases that collectively illustrate the Courts' struggle to create consistent standards of capital punishment.  (Vol. 29, No. 3)

Marla Sandys and Adam Trahan.  Life Qualifications, Automatic Death Penalty Voter Status, and Juror Decision Making in Capital Cases. This article looks at the consistency between responses to a general life-qualifications question and descriptions of sentencing decisions among former capital jurors. (Vol. 29, No. 3)

Charles Clay Doyle and Clement Charles Doyle.  Wretches Hang That Jury-men May Dine.  Inspired from a quote by Alexander Pope, this article takes a historical look at the tradition of denying jurors food or drink until they reached a verdict.  (Vol. 22, No. 3)

Joseph Sanders.  Jury Deliberation in a Complex Case: Havner v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals.  This report discusses jury instructions, deliberations, and ways that jurors can reach correct verdict in complex cases..  (Vol. 16, No. 2)