Any fan of TV’s many legal dramas knows that a trial before a jury of your peers is a hallmark of the American justice system. But television does not always accurately reflect reality.
Brandy Hemmer, a psychology graduate student, found that jury pools in Hamilton County, Tennessee, do not represent the community when compared to US Census data.
Hemmer presented her research at the 22nd annual Association of Psychological Science conference in Boston. Hemmer also submitted her paper to the American Psychological Society and was selected to present a poster of her findings at their annual convention.
Hemmer’s research, under the direction of Psychology Professor Dr. David Ross, entitled “Are Juries Representative? An Examination of the Representativeness of Jury Panels in Hamilton County, Tennessee,” found that Hamilton County jury pools skewed toward older white males with higher levels of education and income.
“We conducted surveys at the Hamilton County courthouse for three months. We had 375 people take the written survey,” said Hemmer.
Hemmer said the findings support the need for further research to examine why people do not show up, so that legal reforms can be implemented to help increase the representativeness of the jury panels.
“Part 2 of this study is being done to examine whether the people who are summoned, who show up, who are impaneled, and who actually serve are representative of the county according to the Census,” Hemmer said.
