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Chapter 7, U.S. v. Virginia Military Institute Part 2 Lecture Notes Lets consider another U.S. Supreme Court case to drive home the point of Chapter 7s lesson: Behavioral and social knowledge can aid in the resolution of factual disputes relating to the constitutionality of a law
Facts in Ballew v. Georgia Ballew was convicted in GA of distributing obscene materials
Instead of having a jury of 6 to 12 people, Ballews jury consisted of 5 people Ballew claims that a trial before such a small jury is unconstitutional
Ballew appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals, but it affirmed the trial courts decision Ballew then appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court, but it refused to consider his
case
Finally, he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court
Legal Issue Ballew claimed that using a 5 person jury in a state criminal trial deprived him of his constitutional right to an impartial jury trial 6th Amendment reads: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to an impartial jury " 14th Amendment makes the 6th Amendment's provision applicable to the states in non-petty criminal cases Non-petty means that the crime carries a penalty of at least 6 months imprisonment The purpose of a jury trial is to prevent government oppression by having community participation in the trial The jury provides the common sense of the community Providing an accused with the right to be tried by an impartial jury gives him/her a critical safeguard against a: Corrupt or overzealous prosecutor Compliant, biased, or eccentric judge
U.S. Supreme Court in Williams v. Florida previously held that the purpose and functions of the jury could be fulfilled by a jury of 6 members
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12 member juries were an historical accident 6th Amendment mandated a jury only of sufficient size to: Promote effective group deliberation
Provide a representative cross-section of the community, and Insulate members from outside intimidation
The Supreme Court in Ballew faced 2 questions: 1. Whether a further reduction in jury size would significantly inhibit the functioning of the jury, and 2. If yes, whether the states interest in 5 person juries would preserve its constitutionality
Supreme Court Analysis Since Williams v. Florida, there has been substantial scholarship on the effects of jury size Court cited to 38 research studies, scholarly articles, and books critiquing that research
These writings raised significant questions about the wisdom and constitutionality of reducing the jury size below 6 members These writings provide the only basis, besides judicial hunch (opinion), for a decision about whether smaller juries will achieve the goals of the 6th Amendment What Research Teaches 1. Progressively smaller juries are less likely to foster effective group deliberation As juries decrease in size, the less likely: Are its members to make critical contributions Is it to have members who remember each of the important pieces of evidence or argument Is it to overcome the biases of its members and obtain an accurate result 2. The risk of convicting an innocent person (False Positive: Type I error) increases as jury size decreases Risk of not a convicting guilty person (False Negative: Type II error) increases as the size of the jury increases
So what should we do?
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-An optimal jury size can be selected based on our risk priorities E.g., If the preference of society is let 10 guilty men go free rather than convict 1 innocent man -Then we should weigh Type I errors (false positives) 10 times more than Type II errors (false negatives), which results in the optimal jury size being 6 8 people 3. Verdicts in criminal cases will change as juries become smaller Group theory suggests that a person in the minority will adhere to her/his position more frequently when s/he has at least 1 other person supporting her/his argument. -Thus, hung juries, which help defendants, will diminish as jury size decreases Number is cut in half with a decrease from 12 to 6 member juries As the jury size goes below 6, few juries would have 1 member with the minority viewpoint, and still fewer would have 2 Thus, the chance for hung juries declines accordingly 4. As jury size decreases, the opportunity for meaningful and appropriate representation by minority groups decreases 5. Problems with smaller juries may not appear in simulated jury research, even though problems exist E.g., To study jury behavior, you need to count the jurys decision as 1 data point (not 5, 6 or 12) If you want 100 data points for your statistical analysis, you need 100 juries If each jury has 12 members, you need to run 1200 subjects in the research Most experimental research does not include that many subjects U.S. Supreme Courts Conclusion There is no clear line between 6 and 5 members
But the research data raise substantial doubts about: (1) The reliability of juries composed of less than then 6 people It promotes inaccurate and possibly biased decision making
It causes differences in verdicts
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(2) Whether smaller juries appropriately represent the community Georgia claims that it utilizes juries of less than 12 primarily for efficiency reasons: GA argues that reducing jury size from 12 to 5: (1) Reduces the money it has to give to jurors
(2) Saves court time
Supreme Courts Evaluation of GAs Claim 1. There is little time savings for jury selection with smaller juries because, no matter what the jury size, many questions are directed at the entire jury panel 2. Total trial time does not diminish with a reduction in jury size 3. Court delays and backlogs improve very little with a reduction in jury size 4. Thus, reducing the jury size even further would save states little
Therefore, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that Ballews trial before a 5 member jury deprived him of his 6th Amendment right to a trial by an impartial jury
LESSON What type of social knowledge aided in the resolution of the factual disputes in Ballew?
Research on the effect of group (jury) size on: Verdicts
Issue?
Quality of group deliberation Minority representation on juries Cost of trials Time spent on trials
How Did the Resolution of the Factual Disputes Help Resolve the Constitutional
The resolution of the factual disputes helped the U.S. Supreme Court to decide that the 6th Amendments goals were not satisfied by the GA law