NCJ Number
75131
Journal
Journal of the American Forensic Association Volume: 15 Issue: 2 Dated: (Fall 1978) Pages: 91-109
Date Published
1978
Length
19 pages
Annotation
A study focusing on the effects of inadmissible testimony objections and rulings on jury decisionmaking is presented; the impact of judicial instructions is emphasized.
Abstract
Although jurors are intructed to decide cases solely upon the law and evidence, it is often argued that juries never really disregard inadmissible testimony. In this study involving 63 college student subjects, an actual trial manuscript tape was selected as the stimulus message. The case dealt with a man and women charged with armed robbery of a jewelry store. At different points in the testimony from the primary witness for the prosecution, inadmissible testimony was introduced or deleted, depending upon the particular experimental condition. Tapes were spliced to meet condition needs; four independent conditions were created. The first group of students was exposed to inadmissible testimony, an objection by the defense, the judge's sustaining the objection, and instructions to the jury to disregard the inadmissible material. The second group was exposed to the same transcript with the defense objections and the judge's ruling deleted. The third group heard all of the inadmissible testimony, defense objections, and the judge's overruling the objections. The fourth group served as a control condition and was not exposed to any inadmissible testimony. The study employed a factorial design. The subjects' assessment of verdicts, length of sentence, character, competence, and extroversion served as dependent variables. Four conditions were hypothesized for the two experiments conducted during the study, all involving the relationship between objections and guilty verdicts. It is concluded that only when objections were raised to the inadmissible testimony or when the judge ruled the evidence inadmissible did the inadmissible testimony increase the jury's verdicts of guilty and severity of sentence. When the judge overruled an objection to inadmissible testimony, verdicts of guilty and sentence severity increased to a level greater than any other condition. When the judge overruled an objection to inadmissible testimony damaging to the defendant, character ratings were reduced to a level lower than any other condition. Four tables and 51 footnots are included.