American Juries

by VIDMAR, NEILHANS, VALERIE P.

• ISBN13: 9781591025887
• ISBN10: 1591025885
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-10-31
• Publisher: Prometheus Books

Summary

This monumental and comprehensive volume reviews over fifty years of empirical research on civil and criminal juries and returns a verdict that strongly supports the jury system.

Author Biography

Neil Vidmar is both the Russell M. Robinson Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law and a professor of psychology at Duke University.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 9
Acknowledgments	p. 11
Introduction	p. 15
The English Origins of the Modern Jury: From Trial by Ordeal to the Decline of the "Little Parliament"	p. 21
Criminal and Civil Juries in America from Colonial Times to the Present Day: Evolution, a Heroic Role, and Controversy	p. 41
A Jury of Peers: Democratic Goals	p. 65
Jury Selection: Juror Bias, Juror Challenges, and Trial Consultants	p. 83
Problem Cases: Pretrial Publicity	p. 107
The Tasks of the Jury: Evidence Evaluation and Jury Decision-Making Processes	p. 125
Judging the Jury: Evaluating Jurors' Comprehension of Evidence and Law	p. 147
Trials in a Scientific Age: Juries Judging Experts	p. 169
Judging Criminal Responsibility: Erroneous Convictions, the CSI Effect, and the Victim's Role	p. 191
Deciding Insanity: Mad or Bad?	p. 207
Jury Nullification: The War with the Law	p. 221
Death Is Different: Juries and Capital Punishment	p. 241
Civil Liability: Plaintiff vs. Defendant in the Eyes of the Jury	p. 267
Deciding Compensatory Damages: Million-Dollar Questions	p. 281
Punitive Damages: Coffee Spills and Marlboro Cigarettes	p. 303
Juries and Medical Malpractice: Antidoctor, Incompetent, and Irresponsible?	p. 321
Concluding: The Verdict on Juries	p. 339
Notes	p. 347
Index	p. 399
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