Determinants and Consequences of Jury Racial Diversity: Empirical Findings, Implications, and Directions for Future Research

Sommers, Samuel R.

doi:10.1111/j.1751-2409.2008.00011.x

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 91 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“… See Zeisel and Diamond (1978) for a study on the ability of attorneys to optimally use challenges. 42 This explanation is offered by bothAnwar et al (2012) andFlanagan (2015).43 This is exacerbated by the fact that black men appear to be underrepresented in the population of registered voters, which consistent with the results ofFukurai et al (1991) andSommers (2008).…”

mentioning

confidence: 58%

Race, Gender, and Juries: Evidence from North Carolina

Flanagan

2018

The Journal of Law and Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper uses data from felony jury trials in North Carolina to show that (i) the race and gender composition of the randomly selected jury pool has a significant effect on the probability of conviction, (ii) attorneys adjust peremptory challenge strategies in accordance, and (iii) State peremptory challenges have a significant positive impact on the conviction rate when the defendant is a black male. Jury pools with higher proportions white men are more likely to convict black male defendants relative to white male defendants. Jury pools with a higher proportion of black men are more likely to acquit all defendants, especially black men. Attorneys use peremptory challenges strategically in accordance with these results, which are robust to a wide set of controls, including county and judge fixed effects. Each State peremptory challenge is correlated with a 2.4%-2.8% increase in the conviction rate when the defendant is black.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 58%

Race, Gender, and Juries: Evidence from North Carolina

Flanagan

2018

The Journal of Law and Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…28 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 9.4 percent of Lake County residents were black in 2009 compared to 4.8 percent in Sarasota County. Fukurai, Butler, and Booth (1991) and Sommers (2008) suggest numerous reasons that the jury pool is disproportionately less black than the population, including: (i) many blacks are disqualified because of criminal records, (ii) master lists are based on driver licenses and voter registration lists, which are disproportionately nonblack, (iii) blacks are less likely respond to a summons because they mistrust the judicial system, and (iv) source lists are often not updated as often as they should be, which could result in mobile citizens (renters) being difficult to reach. 29 Note that 14 cases are dropped from these regressions due to incomplete charge information.…”

Section: Summary Statisticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials

Anwar¹,

Bayer²,

Hjalmarsson³

2010

107

121

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examines the impact of jury racial composition on trial outcomes using a unique data set of felony trials in Florida between 2000 and 2010. We utilize a research design that exploits day-to-day variation in the composition of the jury pool to isolate quasi-random variation in the composition of the seated jury, finding evidence that: (i) juries formed from all-white jury pools convict black defendants significantly (16 percentage points) more often than white defendants and (ii) this gap in conviction rates is entirely eliminated when the jury pool includes at least one black member. The impact of jury race is much greater than what a simple correlation of the race of the seated jury and conviction rates would suggest. These findings imply that the application of justice is highly uneven and raise obvious concerns about the fairness of trials in jurisdictions with a small proportion of blacks in the jury pool. IntroductionThe Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution establishes the right of a defendant charged with a crime to a trial by an impartial jury. 1 Yet the history of American criminal justice is replete with cases where the abstract promise of jury impartiality has been called into question. Of special concern are settings where a minority member of a population is tried in a location in which few, if any, members of the same minority are likely to serve on the jury. 2 This concern has arisen repeatedly in the context of race, as blacks generally constitute a small fraction of the population, and therefore seated juries, in the majority of U.S. states and counties. Vastly unequal outcomes -the proportion of blacks in the prison population is almost four times that in the general population -along with anecdotal evidence from many cases have led numerous observers to question whether the criminal justice system treats black defendants (and victims) fairly.Despite the fundamental importance of the equal and impartial application of the law for the American criminal justice system, the empirical literature on the effect of jury racial composition on trial outcomes is sparse and flawed. Studies based on experimental evidence from "mock" trials are limited by numerous simplifications made for experimental expediency and, more fundamentally, by the substantially lower stakes compared to real criminal trials. 3 And, the few studies that examine the correlation between the composition of the seated jury and trial outcomes are problematic because the seated jury results from a non-random selection process. 4 In particular, in the vast majority of criminal trials in the United States, prosecution and defense attorneys are able to exclude a sizeable number of potential jurors in the jury pool from the seated jury without explanation through the use of peremptory challenges. As a result, even if the initial jury pool is randomly drawn, the composition of the seated jury may be correlated with the nature of the charges and evidence in the case as well as the attributes of the defendant.Given th...

show abstract

“…These intersections of identities should be taken into account across a wide array of situations including classrooms, work groups, and of course, the legal system. For example, men typically exercise more influence on juries than women (Marcus, Lyons, & Guyton, 2000;Strodtbeck & Mann, 1956); however, ensuring racial diversity on juries could contribute toward equalizing the influence exerted by all jury members regardless of gender, beyond the more obvious benefits in terms of racial equality and inclusion (see Sommers, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%