PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Hung Jury, Polygraph, Authoritarian Personality
26 May 2018
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b. Minority that favors acquittal stands a better chance than one that favors
conviction
3. Final verdict
a. Two-thirds majority scheme: jury verdict is usually alternative favored by at
least two-thirds of the jurors at the outset
b. As of 2007, majority verdicts (11:1) are accepted in NSW after jury has
attempted & failed to reach unanimous verdict
4. Hung jury
5. Variables that may predict verdicts
a. Common variables
i. Demographic
1. Relation b/w juror demographic characteristics to verdict is small &
inconsistent
2. May be interaction b/w demographics of jury & demographics of defendant or
the nature of the offense
ii. Personality
1. Moderate link b/w authoritarian personality & rendering a guilty verdict
iii. Attitudes
1. Jurors willing to give death penalty more likely to render a guilty verdict than
those opposed to death penalty
2. Research on other attitudes/values is insufficient to reach definitive
conclusions
iv.Defendant characteristics
1. Small relationship b/w attractiveness of defendant & verdict
2. Similarity-latency hypothesis: jurors who share characteristics w/ the
defendant will be lenient
3. Black-sheep effect: similarity predicted leniency, except where evidence
against defendant was very strong - in which case they become more severe
6. Arguments for and against juries
a. Against
i. Being trialed by ones peers does not guarantee fair trial
ii. Juries not always representative of community
iii. Jury does not give reason for decision
iv.Juries can be unpredictable - decisions may not be rational
v. Jury rials often result in mistrials or hung juries
vi.Expensive, slow
vii.Sometimes do not understand or remember evidence
b. For
i. Important civic responsibility & jurors feel sense of responsibility
ii. Decision of group of peers more acceptable to defendant than decision of one
non-representative judge
iii. Each jury brings a fresh eye
iv.Jurors possess ‘common sense’
c. Judge or Jury
i. Judge: returned same verdict as jury in 78% of cases
ii. Most legal experts agree we should retrain juries
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