CONVICTION OR ACQUITTAL? RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF JUROR AND DEFENDANT: A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia warned a few years ago that jurors tend to sympathize with defendants of their own kind (Marcotte, 1989, p. 41). The clear implication of the justice's warning was that such sympathies may well extend to biased trial judgments. While Scalia's statement is more anecdotal than scientific in character, the justice does speak from a position of unquestioned knowledge on the issue.
The Rodney King police beating case in Southern California caused a storm of controversy when a predominantly white, middle-class jury acquitted white, middle-class police officers in the face of an overwhelming public perception of defendant guilt (Jury with no blacks, 1992, p. 9). Regardless of what the actual bases of the verdict were, the public perception was that racial bias played a major role in the jury's decision.
Obviously, many defense and prosecuting attorneys act on a belief that a causal relationship does exist between a juror's decision in a case and a coincidence of socio-economic characteristics of juror and defendant. Prosecutors frequently attempt to peremptorily challenge prospective jurors who are residents of poor, violent-prone neighborhoods when defendants are also from such backgrounds (Peremptory based, 1992, pp. 1047-1048). Defense attorneys frequently attempt to peremptorily challenge prospective jurors on the basis of formal educational attainment when defendants are from dramatically different backgrounds (Peremptory challenges, 1992, p. 482). The United States Supreme Court has ruled in several peremptory striking cases that peremptory challenges must be race-neutral to be legally acceptable (Government's use, 1991, p. 71).
A definitive assessment of the issue has not been made. Certainly, however, there are cogent reasons to investigate the issue.
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