The American Trial Jury on Trial: Empirical Evidence and Procedural Modifications

The trial jury is one of the most long‐lasting and revered of American institutions. Yet recently it has been the recipient of criticism. These attacks have questioned the validity of the assumptions made by the legal system regarding the jury process. Specifically, these assumptions deal with the composition of the venire, the effectiveness of the voir dire process, the ability of jurors to disregard pretrial publicity and inadmissible evidence, the capacities of jurors to reconstruct the trial presentation from memory, and the ability of the jury as a deliberative body to act in a rational, evidence‐oriented manner. Empirical evidence is presented with respect to each of these assumptions, and suggested reforms are generated whenever the evidence conflicts with the assumptions.