Jurors are only human and sympathy as well as empathy are emotions all human beings share. In trials where photographs of innocent victims are used, such as those affected by domestic abuse or children who have been harmed, it is impossible to measure whether the natural human response of feeling sorry and empathetic for the victim affects the outcome of the case.
How Pretrial Publicity Can Affect a Jury
There have been many high profile cases that have obtained pretrial publicity, including the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, and the Menendez Brothers trial. Persons prior to being picked as jurors are bombarded with information about the case that may or may not be legally relevant and in some cases, may or may not be true. Through expansive questioning in jury selection, it may be possible to weed out those jurors who may be unduly influenced by pretrial publicity.
The Persuasiveness of an Expert Witnesses Testimony
Many juries are made up of individuals with no more than a high school education, yet they are supposed to absorb enormous amounts of evidence presented at trial and then have to try to make sense of it all. There are those who believe in complex or technical cases in civil court that judges, not juries, should decides such matters. There have been studies conducted to the contrary, that all jurors are actually assisted in their decision making by expert testimony and that this expert testimony may improve their “…sensitivity….without increasing juror skepticism.” (Penrod & Cutter, Eyewitnesses, Experts, and Jurors: Improving the Quality of Jury Decisionmaking in Eyewitness Cases, Organizational and Work Psychology 1992, 6).
The Jury’s Perception of the Individuals Involved in the Trial
Studies have been conducted that measure a person’s perception of an individual’s face and how it may affect their decision-making. Subjects found that “…faces with angular-shaped jaws are perceived as older, stronger, and more dominant than identical faces with more rounded jaws; when large round eyes are added, or when eyebrows are placed relatively high on the forehead, faces take on a more youthful, naïve, submissive, and honest appearance.” (Kassin, The American Jury On Trial: Psychological Perspectives 1988, 102).
In another study when subjects were given pictures of a defendant with a babyish face, round eyes, and high eyebrows, the subjects perceived him guilty of a negligence crime rather than the intentional misdeed. The opposite occurred when the defendant’s picture was that with features of low eyebrows, small eyes, and a rectangular chin. With this picture the subjects easily found this defendant guilty of intentional deceit.
An Imperfect System
Although jurors are only human, juries remain the best method of determining guilt or innocence at present in the American system of jurisprudence. The system is not perfect, but it is one of the best in the world.
