Hype and Suspicion: The Effects of Pretrial Publicity, Race, and Suspicion on Jurors' Verdicts

Abstract

We exposed some mock jurors to pretrial publicity (PTP) biased against the defendant a few days before they read the trial transcript and rendered individual verdicts. Exposure to the PTP prejudiced the jurors toward voting “guilty,” unless they read information within the PTP that indicated that the defendant was African American and that raised suspicion about the racist motives underlying the PTP's reporting. Information designed to raise more generic, nonracist suspicion did not have this effect. In addition, participants were less likely to vote to convict the defendant if he was African American than if his race was unspecified, and non-White participants were less likely to vote to convict the defendant than were White participants. We discuss these issues and results in the context of the O. J. Simpson trial, specifically, and of the psychology and law literatures more generally.

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