Jury Deliberations – How Do Reasoning Skills Interplay with Decision-Making?

Abstract

We may well wonder how the Casey Anthony reached its verdict in spite of many of us thought was a raft of compelling evidence. In order to understand some of the nuances at play, it is important to understand some of the issues that confront a jury and how the criminal justice system ensures or attempts to ensure a fair outcome in our trial by jury system. At the risk of stating the obvious, one of the most enduring features of our criminal justice system is the institution of trial by a jury of one’s peers. This constitutionally mandated system is, arguably, the best connection between the ordinary man and the judicial system. It has been argued, and all the evidence point to it, that jury trials allow the law to inject common sense as well as the ordinary man's perspectives into an otherwise, complex and hermetic, process.