Empirical research shows juries usually agree with judges on verdicts.

Evidence

Do juries, in fact, misunderstand or ignore the law and reach legally indefensible decisions based on prejudice or emotion? The most thorough investigation of this question is The American Jury, a study that compared jury verdicts in more than 3,500 criminal trials and in more than 4,000 civil trials with the verdicts that trial judges would have rendered in bench decisions. This study found that jury decision making was not arbitrary. In more than three-fourths of the criminal and civil trials, the jury and judge agreed on the verdict, suggesting that the jury reached the legally required result. Moreover, in most cases in which trial judges disagreed with jury verdicts, they viewed those disagreements as arising not from jury caprice or incompetence but primarily from different evaluations of the evidence or the defendant. In only 9 percent of the cases did trial judges maintain that the jury’s verdict was without legal merit. Subsequent studies have corroborated the conclusion of The American Jury that “We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don’t know anything and can’t read.” — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 878

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Jury critics favor bench trials because judges better understand law and evidence — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1435; Judges’ personal attitudes systematically shape their case votes. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2579; The political perspective holds that judges’ attitudes determine their rulings. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2647 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Judges’ personal attitudes systematically shape their case votes. #complicates (0.82) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2579
• Jury critics favor bench trials because judges better understand law and evidence #qualifies (0.78) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1435
• Judges’ personal attributes and even trivial bodily states can shape decisions #complicates (0.76)
• The political perspective holds that judges’ attitudes determine their rulings. #complicates (0.75) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2647
• Judicial decisions result from attitudes, role conceptions, and institutional constraints interacting together. #qualifies (0.74) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1286