Jury Performance In Complex Cases, Particularly Those Involving Fraud or the Presentation of Forensic Evidence (From Jury - Proceedings of Seminar on The Jury, 20-22 May 1986, P 237-261, Dennis Challinger, ed. - See NCJ-103890)

• NCJ Number: 103901
• Author(s): R W Harding
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 25 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

This paper reviews the Australian and British empirical evidence of jury incompetence in complex fraud cases and cases involving extensive forensic evidence and then discusses how jury decisionmaking may be enhanced in such cases.

Abstract

There is no evidence from empirical research that juries are inherently incapable of rendering competent decisions in complex fraud cases and in cases that involve the presentation of scientific evidentiary material. Detected jury inadequacies in such cases are due more to the mismanagement of evidence presentations to the jury than to lay juries' inability to understand and evaluate complex criminal proceedings. Particularly in cases involving forensic evidence, steps should be taken to improve evidence presentations to the jury. The mode and presentation of forensic evidence should emphasize the objective, impartial presentation of facts. This should be supported by the professional ethics of expert witnesses not only in trial testimony but in conducting research whose findings are presented in court. Research limitations that compromise findings must either be avoided or acknowledged so that juries are not misled by supposed scientific evidence. Attorneys and judges should manage the presentation of complex forensic evidence so as to make it intelligible to the lay jury, and procedural reforms, particularly in pretrial procedures, could help in improving the presentation of forensic evidence to the jury. 36 references.