legal decision making and restorative justice

What do public opinion polls say about trusting the jury

over 80% of British public trust jury to come to right decision and consider trial by jury fairer than trial by judge

Bushell’s case

Trial of William Penn and Mead, jury was advised by the judge to convict as guilty but the jury decided they were not guilty. As a result, the judge fined and imprisoned the jurors.

Edward Bushell refused to pay the fine. This case is considered a turning point for jury power + independence.

Jury selection

• Over 18

• Have to be registered to vote

• Resident in the uk

• Not disqualified from jury service (e.g. mental health issues, those on bail in criminal proceedings)

Ghislaine maxwell case

Question asked jurors if they were victims of sexual abuse/assault and if yes could they judge Maxwell fairly.

One juror mistakenly answered ‘no’ but infact was a victim.

Caused controversy if the case should be re-judged but it was concluded that the verdict was fair.

Are jurors up to the job they are tasked with?

Juror comprehension of judicial instructions ranges from 50-70%

They may not be used to taking information in and weighing up evidence e.g. if they have a physical job

Research suggests not great - suggests that jury don’t comprehend information very well

Is strength of evidence important to jurors?

Evidentiary strength is most important determinant of jurors verdicts

In analysis of verdict of 3000 jurors, it was found the stronger the evidence, the more likely the juror was to convict (Garvey et al., 2004)

What is the liberation hypothesis

Proposes that jurors are more likely to deviate from facts of case and allow their decisions to be influenced by extraneous factors such as race/gender. More likely in less serious cases.

When jurors liberated from legal constraints such as convincing eyewitness testimony, recovered firearm, clear injury

What is pre trial publicity and how does it affect the jury?

Negative pre trial publicity (PTP) cause jurors to form negative impressions of the defendant, can have an extremely detrimental effect on jury verdicts

Positive PTP makes jurors less likely to convict

Different approaches to verdicts

Mathematical approach - Jurors engage in a series of mental calculations in which they weigh up the relevance and strength of each piece of evidence

1. Explanation approach

Linked closer with what actually goes on

Heuristic systematic model

Cognitive story model

What is the cognitive story model in an explanation approach

Assumes that jurors actively construct explanations for evidence presented to them and decide on verdict accordingly

3 stages - story construction, verdict representation, story classification

Ppts who chose guilty verdict constructed different stories than those who chose non guilty

What are the two forms of deliberation for jury decisions

Verdict driven -take an early vote, then structure discussion around available verdict options, seeking to identify option most acceptable to jurors

Evidence driven - evaluating evidence and attempting to discern truth from conflicting facts

Which deliberation is preferred

Evidence driven deliberations promote more effective decision making. More likely to be less divisive, facilitate working together and produce more thoughtful discussion

30-50% of juries adopt deliberation style that focuses on first choosing verdict rather than systematically reviewing evidence presented

Judge vs jury agreeement

Agreement 75% of the time

Disagreement 25% of time

Juries more inclined to acquit than judges

What is therapeutic jurisprudence

An interdisciplinary approach to the law that seeks to promote the psychological and emotional wellbeing of individuals involved in legal system

What is procedural justice

fairness of processes used by those in positions of authority to reach specific outcomes or decisions

What are the 4 R’s of restorative justice

Restoration for victim, rehabilitation of offender, reconciliation between victims, offenders and community, reintegration.

Restorative practices in uk

Victim offender mediation

Victim offender conferencing

Community conferencing

Victim offenders group

Limitations/critiques of restorative practices

Has to be mutual consent otherwise issues such as coercion or power imbalance may arise.

May be a built in bias in favour of positive results due to its voluntary nature