Testing the Impact of Race on Jury Evaluations of Informants

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

An important body of legal scholarship has emerged about the justice risks associated with the use of informants, who provide information to law enforcement officials about criminal activity usually in exchange for leniency consideration or dismissal on a pending criminal charge. Despite the increasing concern, there has been very little empirical research on the use of informants as witnesses. This study builds on the nascent line of research about informant testimony by examining whether and how the race of the informant, as well as the race of the defendant, impacts laypersons' assessments of credibility, culpability, and blame-worthiness in a simulated jury setting. By measuring both individual-level and group-level cognition and action, the project tests how racism emerges and is elaborated in group-level judgment contexts, and how the race of case actors interacts with jurors' racial identity. Within that, the study will examine both the cognitive and more emotionally-based responses to informant testimony. The proposed research has the potential to generate timely and important broader impacts. It will inform policy regarding the use of informants and whether the documented problems with laypersons' assessments of informant evidence are exacerbated by the racial identify of those witness. As such, it has the potential to address real-word procedural issues that come from heavy reliance upon informants in drug case prosecutions. The broader impacts also include training and education of graduate and undergraduate students. The study uses an experimental design, in which the race of defendant (African-American or white) and race of informant witness (African-American or white) is varied, creating four versions of an audio-visual presentation of a federal drug conspiracy trial that includes testimony by an informant. Jury-eligible, non-student adult participants will be recruited and assigned to 140 small group "juries." Each jury group will view one of the four versions of the trial and will then deliberate to determine a verdict. Those deliberations will be recorded to analyze the group decision-making process. After the verdict is rendered, participants will individually complete a comprehensive set of measures regarding decision-making processes, perceptions, and attitudes. The main research questions to be answered in this study are: 1) Is an African-American defendant more likely to be found guilty than a white defendant? 2) Are the credibility ratings for a white informant higher than for an African-American informant? 3) Is the credibility "threshold" for conviction lower for an African-American defendant than for a white defendant, as a function of differential empathy? 4) Will the group deliberation process amplify racial bias, as has been demonstrated in previous research on death penalty decision-making? And 5) Will the effects of informant/defendant race be moderated by juror race and gender?