The Future of Capital Trials: An Exploration of Procedural Justice, Race, and Willingness to Serve Again

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to determine whether race (a juror’s race, racial composition of the jury, race of the jury foreperson, and defendant—victim racial composition) and perceptions of procedural justice affect capital jurors’ willingness to serve again. Using logistic regression, data from 662 capital jurors are analyzed. A direct test of procedural justice theory is not supported by these findings; however, feeling emotionally upset about the experience is strongly associated with unwillingness to serve again. In addition, those who served on a White defendant—Black victim case were more likely to report future willingness to serve compared to jurors on White— White cases. When the regression model is divided into subsamples (White jurors only and Black jurors only), feeling emotionally upset is still a strong indicator for both groups, and both Black and White jurors are less willing to serve again when the victim in their case was White. In addition, part-time employment was a significant indicator of unwillingness to serve again for Black jurors. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.