The Effects of Victim Impact Evidence on the Verdicts and Sentencing Judgments of Mock Jurors

Abstract

Victim impact evidence consists of information about the effects of a crime on the victim or the victim's family. We presented 48 juries with two levels of victim impact evidence (victim impact/no victim impact) and two levels of evidence strength (strong/weak), with an equal number of juries in each of the 4 conditions. No significant effects for victim impact evidence were demonstrated at the jury level for either verdicts or sentencing judgments. However, jurors presented with victim impact evidence were less likely to find the defendant guilty for their post-deliberation verdicts, and those who found the defendant guilty gave significantly harsher sentence recommendations and were more likely to impose the death penalty than jurors who did not receive victim impact evidence. Implications for decisions such as Payne v. Tennessee (1991) are discussed.