Craig Haney - US grants

9530102 Haney This dissertation improvement project will expand upon the preliminary work of the P.I.s on the problems in the quality and degree of comprehension of jurors in interpreting capital penalty sentencing instructions. The previous research established key areas of confusion surrounding California's pattern instruction. The present research will explore the influence of comprehension on racial bias and a bias favoring death verdicts in capital sentencing. It will use an experimental design to explore the effects of racial variables on the decision making processes of penalty jurors to test the hypothesis that jurors' inability to comprehend and apply sentencing guidelines contributes to the documented racial disparity in death sentence imposition. It is hypothesized that what is interpreted by mock jurors as aggravating and mitigating circumstances will be influenced by race of victim and defendant. It is also hypothesized that comprehension problems will be worse for items related to mitigation, and that this will create a bias in favor of a death verdict among the subjects. %%%% This dissertation improvement project will expand upon the preliminary work of the P.I.s on the problems in the quality and degree of comprehension of jurors in interpreting capital penalty sentencing instructions. The previous research established key areas of confusion surrounding California's pattern instruction. The present research will explore the influence of comprehension on racial bias and a bias favoring death verdicts in capital sentencing. It will use an experimental design to explore the effects of racial variables on the decision making processes of penalty jurors to test the hypothesis that jurors' inability to comprehend and apply sentencing guidelines contributes to the documented racial disparity in death sentence imposition. It is hypothesized that what is interpreted by mock jurors as aggravating and mitigating circumstances will be influenced by race of victim and defendant. It is also hypothesized that comprehension problems will be worse for items related to mitigation, and that this will create a bias in favor of a death verdict among the subjects. ****

This study explores the potential of a new type of jury instructions to improve the longstanding problem of juror instructional comprehension. The present study examines the viability of "pinpoint" instructions, or instructions that provide explicit examples to help jurors understand traditionally abstract concepts, and make direct reference to the facts presented at trial. Two-hundred jury-eligible community members will observe a realistic videotaped simulation of a capital penalty phase trial. Following the simulated trial, participants (randomly assigned to one of three groups) will hear one of three sets of instructions: the traditional California pattern jury instructions; psycholinguistically improved instructions; or "pinpoint" instructions modified to include case-specific factual examples to explain abstract concepts for jurors. At the conclusion of the trial and instructions, participants will be asked to indicate a verdict choice, complete a comprehension measure (designed to gauge comprehension levels in various ways), and to provide demographic information. Comprehension levels of the three groups will be examined and compared to determine whether and to what extent pinpoint instructions improve comprehension.