Recently, in his blog (Defending People), Mark Bennett posted about using scientific jury selection via the use of questions to assess jurors’ authoritarianism. Mark even shares the questions he used.

We happen to love this idea. We like to use pre-existing (already validated) survey research items since we have an idea of what a normal distribution of responses should look like. Mark’s idea of using the authoritarianism trait is a tried and true one. Research has long shown us that people who are authoritarian are more likely to be punitive, see the ‘law’ as a black and white standard, and condemn persons who question and/or deviate from societal norms.

The challenge in this sort of approach to jury selection (as pointed out in the comments on Mark’s blog entry) is in figuring out just how to get to the data.

• One reader suggests a pretrial questionnaire.
• And a member of the jury pool where Mark tried this strategy says she found it really interesting but wondered if she had enough time to really consider her responses.
• Mark used half his voir dire time to ask jurors these questions.

Often, you simply don’t have the time in voir dire to do this sort of interviewing/questioning but when you do, this is a good strategy if you do not have the luxury of pre-trial research. There are multiple resources you can peruse (free of charge) that may elicit additional ideas for voir dire investigation. It’s like a scavenger hunt. Below we suggest just a few:

Of Innocence and Dissonance: Reviewing the Conviction-Prone Status of Death Qualified Juries from a Cognitive Dissonance Perspective by Victoria A. Springer (2007). Download from SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=992963

Our Existential Death Penalty: Judges, Jurors, and Terror Management Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier (2008). Download from SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1324922

Authoritarians Have Moral Intuitions that Liberals Do Not Share: A New Look at Moral Foundations Theory. Matthew B. Kugler (2009). Download from SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1435002

Related posts:

1. Voir Dire Strategy: Who’s the Libertarian?
2. Voir Dire Tip: Are you ‘transported’ by a good story?
3. Voir Dire Fundamentals: Look for trouble, not for friends
4. Voir dire lesson: “I don’t believe everything I hear”
5. Voir Dire Clinic

1. Lowell Steiger says:

   July 14, 2010 at 2:38 PM

   Jury Selection (Voir Dire) Strategy: Who's the Authoritarian? http://bit.ly/cQHXzL
2. schantzlaw says:

   July 13, 2010 at 12:55 PM

   RT @KeeneTrial: Yesterday's blog post: Voir Dire Strategy: Who’s the authoritarian? http://bit.ly/bwDfWv
3. Pauline says:

   July 12, 2010 at 5:05 PM

   RT @noblindfold: RT @KeeneTrial: New blog post: Voir Dire Strategy: Who’s the authoritarian? http://bit.ly/bwDfWv
4. pev7184 says:

   July 12, 2010 at 5:05 PM

   RT @noblindfold: RT @KeeneTrial: New blog post: Voir Dire Strategy: Who’s the authoritarian? http://bit.ly/bwDfWv