Jury Size and Voting Requirements for Criminal Convictions: Assessing the Tradeoffs
Supreme Court Economic Review 2020 28:, 221-236
14 Pages Posted: 8 Aug 2019 Last revised: 6 Aug 2021
Date Written: July 23, 2019
Abstract
Juries are a fundamental element of the criminal justice system. In this article, we model jury decision making as a function of two institutional variables: jury size and voting requirement. We expose the critical interdependence of these two elements in minimizing the probabilities of wrongful convictions, of wrongful acquittals, and of hung juries. We find that the use of either large nonunanimous juries or small unanimous juries offers alternative ways to maximize the accuracy of verdicts while preserving the functionality of juries. Our framework, which lends support to the elimination of the unanimity requirement in the presence of large juries, helps appraise US Supreme Court decisions and state legal reforms that have transformed the structure of American
juries.
Keywords: jury size, voting requirement, criminal trial
JEL Classification: K0, K4
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation