1. BIG question: do the juries in criminal trials make fair decisions?

2. Jury decisions
2. Pretrial publicity

3. Pretrial publicity
Juries in criminal cases are instructed to based their verdicts only on the evidence presented to the court.
This expectation assumes that jurors are capable of putting out of their minds anything else they know about the case, including what they have learned from media reports before and during the trial.
There is substantial evidence that pretrial publicity can affect jurors’ decisions. Ruva (2010) suggests this is because jurors cannot distinguish between memories of PTP and memories of courtroom evidence (similar to the effect of misinformation on witness memories).

4. Content analysis
Remind each other of how a content analysis is carried out.

5. Content analysis
Joanna Yeates was murdered in Christopher Jefferies was her landlord, and lived in the flat above Joanna’s. He was arrested during the police investigation. The arrest was widely reported in the newspapers.
We need to analyse whether these articles contain material that might prejudice a jury. We need to define coding categories that allow us to code each assertion in the articles as:
Neutral about Christopher Jefferies
Positive about Christopher Jefferies
Negative about Christopher Jefferies
Not relevant to Christopher Jefferies
Read both articles as a group and formulate definitions of these coding categories.

6. Content analysis Code both articles using a tally chart.
Coding unit is assertion.
Coding categories are neutral/negative/positive/irrelevant.
Sketch a bar chart that allows the two articles to be compared.
Comment on the similarities and differences between the articles.
Decide whether either or both articles have the potential to affect a jury’s decision.

7. Apply what we have learned...
Write a report to the trial judge commenting on the risk to a fair trial posed by each article. Support your points by referring to research into the effects of pretrial publicity.
Outline why pretrial publicity might be a problem.
Outline the results of your content analysis of the articles.
Comment on whether either or both article has the potential to prejudice the jury.
Support your argument with psychological research.

8. The Joanna Yeates case
Joanna Yeates disappeared after a night out with friends and was later found murdered. Vincent Tabak was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The British media were roundly criticised for their reporting of the case, particularly the arrest of Christopher Jefferies. A number of newspapers paid damages to Jefferies as a result of libel proceedings. The Sun and The Daily Mirror were found to be in contempt of court and fined.
Article A was from The Daily Mail. Article B was from The Guardian.

9. Preparation
Next lesson, we will be considering the question of whether the jury system should be replaced with a different system for deciding innocence or guilt in criminal cases.
Review your learning on jury decisions.
Reading & note making (focus on the arguments):
blog/ /Scrap-magistrates-cut-juries-and-let-professional- judges-decide.html