Psychological Trial Consultant

Psychological Trial

Psychological Trial Consultant

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Psychological Trial Consultant

Psychological trial consultants can play a valuable role in the court system by providing key information on the defendant, jurors, or witnesses. Through their knowledge of human behavior and scientific assessment the psychologist will provide the court with insight to assist in proving the guilt or innocence of a criminal defendant. One of the most popular reasons a psychologists is employed in the trial process is during jury selection. Psychologists are hired to assess the potential juror in order to identify any potential bias against the court or the criminal defendant.

Selecting a jury is crucial to the outcome of a court case. If the defense attorney or prosecutor selects the wrong jury the result can be a bad outcome. The use of a psychologist to select a jury is most often used in criminal cases were the defendant can afford the services of a psychological trial consultant or the state has one on their payroll. The consultant will observe jurors as they are questioned by attorneys. This questioning is known as voir dire or speaking the truth (Hutson, 2007). Jurors can be dismissed for cause by either of the opposing attorney or dismissed on a peremptory challenge. The psychologist’s assists in determining which jurors should be dismissed.

When a psychological is used during jury selection they will pick up on behavior, body language, and the reaction of the potential juror to questions asked by the prosecutor or defense attorneys. These reactions allow the attorney to make a decision whether or not to dismiss the juror. Psychologists do provide a worthwhile service especially when they assist in the development of a fair and unbiased jury. When the jury is unbiased the result of the trial will be fair for the criminal defendant. Biased juries can result in a failure of justice. Guilty offenders could go free if the jury is biased or the innocent could be found guilty for a crime they did not commit.

Scientific jury selection should become more widespread as long as it is available to all criminal defendants as well as the state. Scientific jury selection is a valuable tool for screening potential jurors and assessing them for potential biased against the states position or against the criminal defendant. For example the psychologist could identify a juror that is prejudice against minorities when there is a minority criminal defendant or identify a juror that is against the death penalty in a capital case. If psychological evaluation during jury selection became more widespread jurors used in court cases would be scientifically selected.

While critics find jury selection is not a scientific process the additional information gleaned from these professionals can assist the attorney in persuading a jury to see their viewpoint. To achieve these goals the attorney needs to understand the jurors. This includes understanding - who they are, what motivates them, and how they make decisions (Singer, 2008). Without this information the opposing attorney may pick a jury more likely to agree with their side of the argument.

Jury selection is a complicated process especially in high powered cases, such as the Scott Peterson trial or the Kacee Anthony trial. Trial consultants, in both cases, assisted the prosecution and the defense in identifying jurors biased against their side of the argument. In the Anthony case the jury selected helped to free her while in the Peterson case the selected jury helped to convict. Through the use of a psychologist the jury selected provided an unbiased decision on guilty or not.

References

Hutson, M. (2007). Unnatural Selection. Retrieved October 10, 2013 from

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200703/unnatural-selection

Singer , A. (2008). Using Psychology to Win in Court. Retrieved December 10, 2013 from

http://www.trialconsultants.com/Library/UsingPsychologytoWin.html