Jurors feel trapped by sentencing rules into against-judgment verdicts

Evidence

Here is a juror from the Zimmerman trial analyzed earlier expressing regret for acquitting the defendant, despite believing that he was guilty. She felt that she could not have done otherwise because of the constraints of the sentencing rules, “They give you a booklet that basically tells you the truth, and the truth is that there is nothing that we could do about it” (Cadet, 2013). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2000

Categorization

• XREF: Complements the structural aggravation passage — both show procedural rules overriding juror judgment and conscience.