NCJ Number
171320
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 21 Issue: 5 Dated: (October 1997) Pages: 485-501
Date Published
1997
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study reports on the impact of graphic pictorial evidence on mock jurors' decisions in a murder trial.
Abstract
Although courts in the United States and Canada regularly admit into evidence vividly descriptive photographs, there has been little research on whether such evidence prejudices the decisions of jurors. Mock jurors (N=120) read a detailed transcript of a murder trial, and were presented with either color, black-and-white, or no photographs of an actual murder victim. The proportion of guilty verdicts in the color and the black-and-white photograph conditions was approximately double that in the control condition. Both groups were more likely than the control group to report emotional distress and physical reactions in response to viewing the photographs. By contrast, there were few differences between groups concerning the extent to which participants felt that the photographs influenced verdicts. Participants in all conditions equally felt that they had acted fairly. The article discusses implications of the admissibility of graphic pictorial evidence, and the seeming inability of participants to recognize that their judgments were biased. Notes, tables, references