Decision-Making in the Dark: How Pre-Trial Errors Change the Narrative in Criminal Jury Trials

Chicago-Kent Law Review Volume 90 Issue 3 Juries and Lay Participation: American Perspectives and Global Trends Article 8 6-23-2015 Decision-Making in the Dark: How Pre-Trial Errors Change the Narrative in Criminal Jury Trials Kara MacKillop Duke Law School Center for Criminal Justice and Professional Responsibility Neil Vidmar Duke Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Kara MacKillop & Neil Vidmar, Decision-Making in the Dark: How Pre-Trial Errors Change the Narrative in Criminal Jury Trials, 90 Chi.- Kent L. Rev. 957 (2015). Available at: https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview/vol90/iss3/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons @ IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chicago-Kent Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarly Commons @ IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. For more information, please contact dginsberg@kentlaw.iit.edu.

Overthepastdecadeandahalf,agreatdealofattentionhasright fullybeengiventotheissueofwrongfulconvictions.in2003,jimdwyer, Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck published, an eye opening treatise on the reality of wrongful convictions in the United States.Intheyearssince,morethan1400innocentpersonshavebeen exonerated, and a very diverse research community of attorneys, aca demics, social scientists, and activists has developed in response to the realizationofflawsinourcriminaljusticesystem.in2012,brandongar rett squantitativelyevaluatedthefirst250dna exonerations and exposed clear patterns of error within those cases. DanSimon s followedwithaunionofthesepatternsandtheirrelationshipwithestab lished psychological principles. This strong foundation has led to an explosion of interest in identifying, analyzing and resolving the issues raisedinwrongfulconvictioncases. The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Scheck and Neufeld in cooperationwiththebenjaminn.cardozoschooloflaw,hasexpanded to many dozens of Innocence Network organizations throughout the world.thedukewrongfulconvictionsclinic,inoperationforjustover fiveyears,recentlymarkeditsfifthexonerationinthestateofnorthcar olina. In addition, the Clinic is currently working seven innocence peti RethinkingtheStudyofMiscarriagesofJustice:DevelopingaCriminology ofwrongfulconviction

CHICAGOKENTLAWREVIEW tionsfiledandinlitigation,andadditionalcasesareinvariousstagesof investigation. Inanefforttobetterunderstandandremedytheerrorsoccurringin thesewrongfulconvictioncases,thedukeclinic sresearchteamiswork ingtodeveloparootcauseanalysismethodologyintendedtoidentifythe policies,procedures,andlegaldoctrinesthatcontributetotheseerrors andtodevelopstrategiesforimprovingthecriminaljusticeprocess.be causethejusticesystemreliesonindividualsandthedecisionstheymake asthecoreofitsfunction,itisnecessarytoconsiderthevariousrolesof responsibility and evaluate their decisionmaking processes in order to identify the root causes of wrongful outcomes. Here, we illustrate this processwithaconsiderationofthejury sroleinreachingwrongfulver dicts. ACognitiveTheoryofJurorDecisionMaking:TheStory Model How Many False Convictions Are There? How Many Exonerations Are There? availableat

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