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PG II(K) Empirical Evidence Of Juror Inability To Understand Instructions.
Empirical studies establish that a substantial minority (almost 25%) of death-qualified jurors erroneously believe that life without parole will allow the parole or judicial system to release the defendant in less than 10 years due to overcrowding and other factors and over 75% disbelieve the literal language of life without parole. (See CACJ Forum (1994) Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 42-45; see also, Haney, Santag and Costanzo, “Deciding to Take a Life: Capital Juries, Sentencing Instructions, and the Jurisprudence of Death” 50 Journal of Social Sciences No. 2 (Summer 1994) [“Four of five death juries cited as one of their reasons for returning a death verdict, the belief that a sentence of life without parole did not really mean that the defendant would never be released from prison ….”]; Simmons v. South Carolina (94) 512 US 154 [129 LEd2d 133; 114 SCt 2187].) Moreover, a juror’s belief as to the meaning of the sentences is the single most important reason for voting for a particular verdict. (CACJ Forum Vol. 21 at p. 45.)
In a study of ten separate California juries, the following findings were made: (1) Consideration of mitigating evidence — “[F]ully 8 out of the 10 California juries included persons who dismissed mitigating evidence because it did not directly lessen the defendant’s responsibility for the crime itself.” (2) Comprehension of Legal Crimes and Legal Terms — “Of the 30 California jurors interviewed, only 13 showed reasonably accurate comprehension of the concepts of aggravating and mitigating.” (See Haney, Santag and Costanzo, “Deciding to Take a Life: Capital Juries, Sentencing Instructions, and the Jurisprudence of Death” 50 Journal of Social Sciences No. 2 (Summer 1994) [This study, along with several other death penalty articles, is available through: Subscription Dept., Plenum Publishing Corporation, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Orders can also be faxed to the Subscription Dept. at 212/807-1047. Single issues are $49.50 each.]
[For additional discussion of these issues see FORECITE PG II(H) [discussing federal cases which have addressed empirical challenges to juror misunderstanding of instructions]; see also FORECITE Bibliography, Empirical Research.]
