A jury trial is considered the gold standard of the American criminal justice system. We pride ourselves on the trust we place in a group of citizens who decide the fate of their fellow Americans. To do this, jurors are expected to rely only on the evidence presented in their case.
But the reality is quite different. Jurors are inquisitive. They routinely ignore the judge’s instructions and end up trying to use extrinsic information to make their decisions. Jurors search the Internet, go to crime scenes, discuss the merits of cases long before deliberations, have affairs with witnesses and even watch movies to determine whether to vote for the death penalty. Controlling jurors can be like herding cats. Not an easy task.
