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How Mock Jurors’ Cognitive Processing and Defendants’ Immigrant Status and Ethnicity Relate to Decisions in Capital Trials by West, Matthew P.; Wood, Emily F.; Miller, Monica K.; Bornstein, Brian H. is a Social Sciences article available to read on EtoBox.

What is How Mock Jurors’ Cognitive Processing and Defendants’ Immigrant Status and Ethnicity Relate to Decisions in Capital Trials about?

Objectives This study examined how defendants' immigrant status and ethnicity interact with evidence strength and mock jurors' cognitive processing traits to influence decisions in a capital trial. Methods A sample of jury-eligible participants acted as mock jurors and read a trial summary in which defendant immigrant status, defendant ethnicity, and evidence strength were experimentally manipulated. They then weighed aggravators relative to mitigators, recommended a sentence, and completed measures of rational and experiential processing. Logistic regression was used to test predicted interactions. Results Mock jurors weighed aggravators over mitigators when the defendant was a Latino citizen and when the defendant was an undocumented immigrant. There were no interactions on sentencing decisions. Evidence strength and experiential processing were positively related to rendering a death sentence. Conclusions A defendant's immigrant status and ethnicity might indirectly lead to punitive decisions in capital cases because they influence how jurors weigh aggravators and mitigators.

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Author

West, Matthew P.; Wood, Emily F.; Miller, Monica K.; Bornstein, Brian H.

Publisher

Springer; Springer-Verlag; Springer Verlag; Springer Science and Business Media LLC (ISSN 1573-3750)

Published

2020

Language

EN

Field

Social Sciences