Jury selection is a complicated process. The prosecution and defense must weight whether or not having a particular juror on the panel will benefit or harm their case. In some cases, psychologists are employed to help the attorneys determine which jurors would be the best suited for the case. Jury panels can be easily influenced by the personality of the defendant so that must be taken into consideration as well. Finally, some juries are selected through scientific jury selection, but it is debatable whether or not this method is an effective means of jury selection.
First of all, some attorneys will hire psychologists to analyze the prospective jury pool and help pick out which jurors would be the most effective for the case at hand. Attorneys use the process of voir dire to select a jury. Included in this process are preemptory challenges, meaning that each side has a certain amount of times they can dismiss a juror for no reason (Greene, Heilbrun, Fortune, and Nietzel, 2006). Ultimately, the goal in jury selection is to have a jury that is unbiased; however, this does not always happen (Greene et al, 2006). Psychologists or jury consultants typically come into play when the case is high profile (Hutson, 2007). This is because the defendant or defendants can typically afford this luxury. These psychologists analyze the jurors based upon their behavior and advise the attorneys which juror will be the most beneficial to their case (Hutson, 2007). In addition, psychologists are often employed months before the trial and they do research in the community to determine what type of person would be best for the jury (Hutson, 2007). Psychologists work very hard to figure out before the trial begins what kinds of questions the attorneys should ask during voir dire.
Secondly, psychologists also help the attorneys choose which jurors they think will react least to the defendant, if he or she has a different personality. For example, a psychologist might advise an attorney against putting a conservative, religious, middle aged man on the jury panel if the defendant is a tattooed Satanist. In addition, they might ask develop questions about the defendant’s personal life in order to figure out how the potential juror would react. An example of this was used in the Kobe Bryant rape case when psychologists had the attorneys as potential jurors how they felt about interracial relationships (Hutson, 2007). If a juror responded negatively about them, it can be assumed that the defense attorney would not want that particular person on the jury because they might judge the defendant guilty.
As briefly mentioned before, psychologists use a method of scientific jury selection when they are hired to consult on a case. Psychologists or other jury consultants will begin by doing a phone survey of the people in the area, asking them basic questions such as name, age, prior jury experience, etc (Diamond, 1990). Next, they will develop questions for the attorneys to ask during voir dire and finally, a further set of questions will be developed to make sure that the juror is partial to their side of the case (Diamond, 1990). There are several factors that come into play when determining whether or not scientific jury selection does work. These include: the publicity surrounding a case, the length of a trial, and the preparation put in by the attorneys before and during the case (Greene et al, 2006). Most of the time, it has been shown that the side that does use scientific jury selection will be successful in their endeavors (Diamond, 1990).
In brief conclusion, psychologists should not be used in trials because they provide an unfair advantage to the side that can afford to use them. With most prosecutor offices not having a large amount of money and having to work within a budget, there is little chance that they will be able to hire jury consultants. I believe that the rich are more likely to get off with crimes because they can afford to do these things. Scientific jury selection should be banned and it should be up to an attorney to use their skills to properly select a jury.
References
Diamond, S.S. (1990). Scientific jury selection: what social scientists know and do not know. Judicature, 73(4), 178-183.
Greene, E., Heilbrun, K., Fortune, W. H., & Nietzel, M. T. (2006). Psychology and the legal system (6th ed.). Florence, KY: Cengage Learning.
Hutson, M. (2007). Unnatural Selection. Psychology Today. Web.