NCJ Number
85199
Journal
American Bar Association Journal Volume: 68 Dated: (October 1982) Pages: 1242-1246
Date Published
1982
Length
5 pages
Annotation
A shadow jury was used by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in preparing its defense in a recent antitrust suit.
Abstract
IBM's counsel engaged an expert in behavioral sciences to recruit a jury that would mirror the demographic and psychological characteristics of actual jurors. IBM hoped to evaluate the extent to which jurors with no previous understanding of the case's complex technical matters would be able to understand the facts. Work with the shadow jury provided further insight into the jury decisionmaking process, jurors' social interaction, sociology of the courtroom, and reasons why jurors fail to understand the evidence. Members of the shadow jury were recruited as full-time paid members of a research team. After an intensive training session, they participated in the actual trial and reported daily on their observations. Many jurors came to a decision early in the trial and then sought to support that conclusion with subsequent material. In addition, jurors learned early in the process where colleagues stood on the issue through observing patterns of social influence, verbal and nonverbal cueing, and group formation. Jurors focused on safe topics of discussion when forming groups and found the aura surrounding witnesses important. Lawyers frequently forgot that they were presenting the case to lay people, rather than to experts.