Psychological Aspects of Jury Performance in Criminal Trials

Abstract

Subjects, who were assigned to six juries by level of moral judgment, attended a law school reenactment of a murder trial involving criminal insanity. After testimony three juries deliberated the case separately. Control juries registered individual verdicts, were retested, and dismissed. All jurors were pretested on mood measures at pretrial, post-testimony and follow-up. Deliberation juries were assessed for moral judgment after testimony, deliberation and follow-up. All jurors became affectively aroused on measures of hostility, anxiety and depression from pretrial to post-testimony and through deliberation. Deliberation time and quality varied as a function of level of moral judgment.