How the Traits of a Defendant Influence the Decision of a Jury - Essay Example

The characteristics of a defendant influence the decision of a jury of The characteristics of a defendant influence the decision of a jury Introduction The jury is a group of people who have sworn to be impartial in giving a verdict. The jury usually deals with the trials that are officially assigned to them by the court. In fact, the jury is a sort of institution consisted of people who do not have a legal training to hear evidence and make sense of conflicting facts. The jury usually does not deal with the major judicial problems but deals with a very small and minor portion of legal dispute (Sommers, 2007; Russell & Jarvis, 2003, p. 141). Discussion The jury is thought to be the most reliable and effective system in proliferating quick and evenhanded justice. However, the characteristics of the defendant may influence the jury and to know how the characteristics of defendant would influence the jury will come be through the scrutiny of psychological influences such as majority influence, minority influence, influence of the fore-person, pre-trail knowledge, etc. (Bornsein & Greene, 2011). The characteristics of the defendant that are not relevant to the case such as the social status and attractiveness also play an influential role in juror’s sentencing. To prove this point, it seems essential to give some instances of trials described in different research papers. According to research by Dion, Berscheid, and Walster, the attractiveness of the defendant, would lead to receiving lesser sentence if found to be guilty of a crime. In addition, the gender of a person also plays a vital role in influencing a jury’s verdict because gender provides an opportunity to use the common stereotypical characteristics associated to gender (Moore & Newton, 2005). The positive or negative characteristics associated with a gender such as women are emotional, nurturing and men are aggressive and rational may use by jurors in sentencing a defendant. Besides, the social status of a person can also influence a jury. The good social status in the society leads to develop a strong bond with the authoritative and powerful persons causing to receive lesser sentence, in case of finding guilty of any crime. Why the social status of a person will influence a jury’s decision is that it is generally believed that the wealthier persons have more knowledge and information as well as are aware of different issues than to the less fortunate people who are deemed to know less about different matters and have less information. Therefore, the jury would not show harshness to wealthier person, and the wealthier person would receive lesser punishment if he or she finds guilty of any crime. Similarly, the less fortunate person would receive harsh punishment in case of finding guilty of any crime. In addition to above, if the jury knows something about the defendant even before initiating the trial, it would lead to influence the decision of the jury. For instance, if the jury knows about a defendant that he or she has been involved in different criminal activities then it would cause to influence the decision of the jury. The jury will presuppose the defendant as criminal, or guilt of the crime and the defendant would suffer because of the information the jurors has about him. The jury will not think him to be an innocent person because of his past involvement in criminal activities. Besides, the “halo effect” would also tell how the characteristics of the defendant might influence the jury. “Halo effect” is the method that the jury uses as shortcut to judge characteristics or behavior of a defendant. The jurors use their attitudes to one characteristic of the defendant and basing this predetermined characteristic, the jurors decide whether a person is innocent or guilty. Shortly, the jurors perceive an attractive defendant as being more virtuous and, therefore, they show softness when it comes to the phase of sentencing. As compared to the attractive defendant, the less attractive defendant is thought to be less virtuous and, therefore, the jurors show harshness when it comes to the phase of sentencing. It is believed that the influence of majority overshadows or supersedes the view of the minority in the decision making, and it is rarely seen that the minority successfully maintains its view. In other words, upon rare occasion a minority can convince the majority to accept their viewpoint. The success of the minorities in persuading the majority is greatly dependent upon the behavior of the individuals involved (Russell & Jarvis, 2003). If the minorities are consistent and flexible in their arguments and their argument is relevant then there is the chance of winning the minorities over majorities. Consistency is very crucial for the group who defends and advocates its position is very important. The consistency of the minorities compels to think the majorities that why the minorities are too much persuaded of their being right and so decided to express their view publicly. As a result, the majority examines the view of these minorities and on occasions persuades to accept them. In addition to the above, race is another factor that has the potential to influence the verdict of a jury. If the jury is consisted of the opposite race of the defendant, then there is a great possibility of influencing the jury’s decision. Similarly, if the defendant and jury both belong to the same race, it will also result in affecting the jury’s decision. In the history of United States, the Black defendants have often received inappropriately harsh treatment in the hand of White jurors (Sommers, 2007). Smith and Mackie propose that there are verities of factors that give an edge to the majority over minority in the process of declaring a group either innocent or guilty (Moore & Newton, 2005). The majority arguments are more compelling in the sense of making the same arguments and have more impact as compared to the argument offer by a single person. Furthermore, there is the likelihood of expressing the views of the majority more convincingly than the minority because of the edge of knowing that most of the people are on one side. It gives the majority of the group confidence, and they are thought as intelligent and logical. It is also believed that the opinions or information shared by the majority of the jurors are likely to give more importance by discussing for long than the argument or information of an individual to the jury. It leads to influence the jury’s decision over a trial (Wistrich, Rachlinski, & Guthrie, 2015). One of the most difficult problems regarding the verdict of a jury is hidden in knowing the answer to the question whether the jury reach the right verdict or not. In this case, it should be considered whether the verdict was reasonable in the light of present evidence and law because the jury gives is the verdict on behalf of available evidence besides the existing law. So, it should not be taken into account whether the verdict reaches a right answer or not instead one should examine the trial from the perspective of scenario, evidence besides the current applicable laws. Conclusion Keeping in consideration the above argument regarding the question whether the characteristic of a defendant would influence the decision of a jury or not, it would conclude that there is a great potential of a jury becoming influenced by the characteristics of a defendant. It does not mean that if there is likelihood of a jury’s becoming influenced by the characteristics of a defendant, the jury should throw out of the legal system but one should consider its importance in dealing with the given trial as well as its potential to be effective. If the jury is thrown out of the legal system, then it would cause to add burden to the judicial system in the sense of dealing with huge number of cases and it would cause to prolong the duration of trials. In addition, no system claims of giving right decision but every legal system gives its decisions in the light of evidence and it is not a solution to dissolve the jury, if there is anything wrong regarding the decisions, but one should always strive to enhance the capability of the jury by doing away with the weaknesses of the jury. List of references Bornsein, B.H. & Greene, E., 2011. Jury Decision Making: Implication for and from Psychology. Psychological Science, 20(1), pp.63-67. Moore, M. & Newton, D., 2005. The Influence of a Defendents Status, Level of Community Involvement. Psychological Science, 21(3), pp.45-50. Sommers, S.R., 2007. Race and the Decision Making of Juries. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 12, pp.171 -187. Russell, J. & Jarvis, M., 2003. Angles on Applied Psychology. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. Wistrich, A.J., Rachlinski, J.J. & Guthrie, C., 2015. Heart Versus Head. Texas Law Review., 93(4), pp.855-923. Read More