Abstract:
Wrongful decisions are made by juries in the court room on a regular basis. There are
many different factors that play into this, like eyewitness misidentification, investigatory
mishaps, racial bias, pre-trial publicity, and jury deliberation. Jury deliberation does not have as
much research, as we would like, when it comes to the role that it plays in wrongful decisions
made by juries. More research on the topic would be beneficial. This research makes use of a
mock trial in an honors class at Ball State University, with a total of 91 participants, to determine
if jury instruction plays a large enough role in deliberation to make a difference. The results
show that more instruction on top of the instruction already provided by judges does help jury
deliberation become more efficient. Future Research could examine the scope of the extra
instructions, like what is most important for jury members to know.
