Deck 12: Preparing for Trial

Question 1

Which of the following is not up to the judge to decide?

A)who asks questions during voir dire
B)what questions are asked during voir dire
C)the length of the voir dire process
D)all of the above are decided by the judge

Answer 1

all of the above are decided by the judge

Question 2

The law requires that voter registration lists be used as a primary source for jury pool selection, but these lists tend to underrepresent certain segments of the community.According to Chapter 12, what segments of the community are underrepresented?

A)women
B)men
C)people who have only recently reached voting age
D)those who are college educated

Answer 2

people who have only recently reached voting age

Question 3

A bench trial is a trial in which the verdict is decided by

A)a 12-person jury.
B)a 6-person jury.
C)a judge.
D)none of the above

Answer 3

a judge.

Question 4

The Supreme Court and the United States Congress have established requirements for jury selection procedures that include

A)forbidding scientific jury selection.
B)criteria to determine who should be excused from serving.
C)a requirement that the pool from which the jury is selected must constitute a representative cross-section of the community.
D)all of the above

Question 5

Eisenberg et al.(2005) conducted a more recent examination of judge and jury verdicts in criminal cases and found that judges and juries agreed on their verdicts in
About ____________ of cases.

A)75%
B)70%
C)55%
D)45%

Question 6

According to at least one study of judicial and jury decision-making in civil cases, plaintiffs had more success with judges than juries in cases involving

A)property damage and civil rights.
B)civil rights and labor disputes.
C)contracts and property damage.
D)products liability and medical malpractice.

Question 7

At least one study has suggested that ___________________ showed less support for a jury trial than a bench trial.

A)White Americans
B)Black Americans
C)Hispanic Americans
D)B and C only

Question 8

According to Kalven and Zeisel (1966), in criminal cases, juries ___________________ than judges and convicted defendants in _________ of cases while juries convicted them ________ of cases.

A)were less lenient; 83.3%, 64.2%
B)were more lenient; 64.2%, 83.3%
C)were more lenient; 24.6%.64.2%
D)were less lenient; 64.2%; 24.6%

Question 9

Even 50 years ago juries tended to be composed of mostly

A)Black men.
B)Black women.
C)White men.
D)White women.

Question 10

When someone, such as a juror, strives to present himself or herself in a positive light, that person could be said to be affected by the

A)social eventuality effect.
B)striving to be perfect effect.
C)social desirability effect.
D)positive light effect.

Question 11

According to Kalven and Zeisel (1966), in criminal cases, judges and juries agreed on the actual verdict in ________ of cases.

A)35%
B)55%
C)75%
D)85%

Question 12

Teddy is at the courthouse because he has been called for jury service.The judge has assembled a group of prospective jurors and is asking them to raise their hand if the answer is "yes" to the questions that he asks.Teddy is part of what Chapter 12 refers to as

A)extended peremptories.
B)limited peremptories.
C)extended voir dire.
D)limited voir dire.

Question 13

One reason the courts ruled that juries should be more representative of the population is that verdicts will be more likely to be accepted by the

A)judge.
B)prosecution.
C)defense.
D)public.

Question 14

Which of the following is true of the jury in the first Rodney King beating trial?

A)It was drawn from a community made up of people demographically similar to those in the community in which the beating took place.
B)It consisted of six Black and six White jurors.
C)It was drawn from a community whose demographics favored the defense.
D)It was drawn from a community whose demographics favored the prosecution.

Question 15

Voir dire is a French term meaning

A)"reasonable doubt."
B)"innocent until proven guilty."
C)"to speak the truth."
D)"disregard the testimony."

Question 16

Research shows that heterogeneous groups are

A)better problem solvers than homogenous groups.
B)worse problem solvers than homogenous groups.
C)just as good at problem solving as homogenous groups.
D)just as good at problem solving as homogenous groups, although they take longer.

Question 17

Which of the following is the earliest U.S.Supreme Court case that forbade systematic or intentional exclusion of cognizable groups from serving on juries?

A)Strauder v.West Virginia
B)United States v.Dellinger
C)Holland v.Illinois
D)Powers v.Ohio

Question 18

Judges and jurors may differ in their outcomes due to ________________, which plays a role in decision-making when jurors are affected by factors outside of the
Evidence and law.

A)differential cognitive processing
B)jury sentiment
C)jury nullification
D)B or C

Question 19

Since 1968, the primary source for the jury pool has been

A)licensed drivers.
B)persons registered to vote.
C)persons receiving public assistance.
D)telephone subscribers.

Question 20

The judge has assembled a group of prospective jurors and is asking them to raise their hand if the answer is "yes" to the following question.He asks, "Do any of you have an opinion at this time as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant?" The judge sees that no one has raised a hand, so he accepts all as jurors.Based on information provided in Chapter 12, did the judge make a good decision?

A)The judge did not make a good decision as asking yes/no questions is not a good way to uncover jurors' biases.
B)The judge did not make a good decision as the proper way to ask jurors questions is to let the attorneys do it.
C)The judge made a good decision as research shows that you can believe those who claim to be impartial.
D)The judge made a good decision because if someone held a strong opinion, they would have raised their hand.

Question 21

Kermit is a prospective juror who is currently undergoing voir dire.The defense attorney asks him, "What experiences have you had in your life that caused you to believe that a person was being discriminated against because of the color of his skin?" What kind of question is this?

A)a closed-ended question
B)an open-ended question
C)a restricted question
D)a fixed alternative question

Question 22

Batson-type protection has been extended to

A)bilingual jurors.
B)obese jurors.
C)Italian-American jurors.
D)all of the above

Question 23

If voir dire reveals that a juror is biased, that juror is excluded for

A)peremptory bias.
B)serving within that jurisdiction.
C)cause.
D)good.

Question 24

The idea that jurors who are demographically or socially similar to a litigant will be predisposed to favor that litigant is referred to as the

A)favoritism-approach hypothesis.
B)similarity-leniency hypothesis.
C)resemblance-compassion hypothesis.
D)demographic-similarity hypothesis.

Question 25

Which case ruled that a White defendant can complain about the exclusion of Blacks from the jury?

A)Batson v.Kentucky (1986)
B)United States v.Dellinger (1972)
C)Holland v.Illinois (1992)
D)Georgia v.McCollum (1992)

Question 26

Miller-El's conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court because of

A)gender bias in jury selection.
B)racial bias in jury selection.
C)religious bias in jury selection.
D)none of the above

Question 27

Mock jurors who had been victims of the crime for which the defendant was being tried were found to be __________ likely than non-victims to _________.

A)less; convict
B)more; convict
C)equally; convict
D)equally; acquit

Question 28

The "one-juror verdict theory" assumes that

A)one influential juror will persuade others to vote for his or her preferred verdict.
B)the foreperson will decide the verdict for the jury.
C)a strong-willed lawyer can persuade the jury to decide in his or her favor.
D)the judge is the best person to decide the verdict.

Question 29

Who tends to be most influential during jury deliberations?

A)males
B)extraverts
C)relatively tall people
D)all of the above

Question 30

A lawyer, during jury selection, notices that one young man is formally dressed in a navy blue suit, white shirt, and dark tie.He concludes that the young man is politically conservative.This conclusion is an example of

A)scientific jury selection.
B)the fundamental attribution group error.
C)an implicit personality theory.
D)the M'Naghten rule.

Question 31

According to Chapter 12, the function of peremptory challenges is to

A)allow each side to exclude a designated number of jurors without stating a reason.
B)promote satisfaction with the outcome as the parties each had a role in choosing the decision-makers.
C)allow the attorney to indoctrinate prospective jurors.
D)all of the above

Question 32

During the jury selection process, the attorneys have a specific predetermined number of

A)challenges for cause.
B)peremptory challenges.
C)voir dire challenges.
D)questions they can ask the prospective jurors.

Question 33

Jurors who display authoritarian beliefs

A)are more likely to convict in mock jury experiments.
B)are more likely to endorse aggravating factors in capital trials.
C)are more likely to sentence a defendant to death.
D)all of the above

Question 34

The Supreme Court has held that it is forbidden to exercise peremptory challenges solely on the basis of a juror's

A)race.
B)gender.
C)religion.
D)only A and B

Question 35

Olivia, a prospective juror, is about to undergo a thorough voir dire.Which of the following is the best circumstance for uncovering her true biases?

A)questioning all of the prospective jurors as a group in open court
B)questioning all of the prospective jurors as a group in the judge's chambers
C)questioning each individual in open court
D)questioning each individual in the judge's chambers

Question 36

In voir dire, peremptory challenges allow the attorneys to

A)guarantee the inclusion of particular people on the jury.
B)exclude a certain number of potential jurors for cause.
C)exclude a certain number of potential jurors without giving a reason.
D)exclude as many potential jurors as he or she deems necessary.

Question 37

Jurors' demographic variables are ___________________related to their verdicts, but this relationship is ________________ across different kinds of cases.

A)strongly; inconsistent
B)weakly; consistent
C)sometimes; inconsistent
D)none of the above

Question 38

Implicit personality theories sometimes lead to a reliance on ________________ in the selection of jurors.

A)stereotypes
B)social psychological evidence
C)specific personality traits
D)none of the above

Question 39

A total of 24 White persons and six Black persons are called for jury duty.The trial is for armed robbery, the defendant is Black, and the prosecuting attorney uses peremptory challenges given to him to exclude the six Black people.What should the judge do, according to recent Supreme Court decisions?

A)declare a mistrial and reschedule the trial with a new group of prospective jurors
B)provide the opposing attorney an additional number of peremptory challenges
C)ask the prosecuting attorney to explain the grounds for each of his six decisions and determine if the attorney had grounds for dismissal other than race
D)ask the opposing attorney if he or she wants to challenge the prosecuting attorney's exclusions

Question 40

Which type of question would be most likely to encourage prospective jurors to talk more about their feelings and experiences?

A)a closed-ended question
B)an open-ended question
C)a restricted question
D)a fixed alternative question

Question 41

Researchers have found that it is possible for mock jurors to be influenced by issues that are not specifically related to a particular case but are thematically relevant.Researchers call this

A)general prejudice.
B)preexisting prejudice.
C)generic prejudice.
D)preformed opinions.

Question 42

Overall, available research suggests jurors exposed to pretrial publicity are __________________ to favor the ____________________.

A)more likely; prosecution
B)more likely; defense
C)just as likely; prosecution as the defense
D)less likely; prosecution

Question 43

Which of the following is not listed in Chapter 12 as a possible safeguard against the effects of pretrial publicity?

A)Postpone the trial to reduce the effects of prejudicial information.
B)Change the name of the defendant, leading jurors to believe they are not hearing the publicized case.
C)Conduct an expanded voir dire, in which each juror is questioned extensively and individually.
D)Change the venue.

Question 44

A person who advocates punishment for those who violate established norms, who strictly adheres to conventional values, and who identifies with powerful figures would

A)be considered external in locus of control.
B)be considered someone who believes in a just world.
C)score high on a measure of authoritarianism.
D)favor the defense when responding to the Juror Bias Scale.

Question 45

Jurors who believe that they are responsible for determining their outcomes in life are more likely to

A)assume the defendant was responsible for his or her actions too.
B)find the defendant not guilty.
C)be persuaded by other jurors.
D)take a more active role in the jury deliberation room.

Question 46

If the judge grants a continuance,

A)voir dire is expanded.
B)the trial is postponed with the expectation that the delay will lessen the effects of pretrial publicity.
C)the trial is suspended as long as the defendant stays out of trouble.
D)none of the above

Question 47

Researchers who have conducted field studies of the effects of naturally occurring publicity have found that those exposed to pretrial publicity

A)have more knowledge about the event.
B)are more likely to prejudge the case.
C)are more knowledgeable of incriminating but inadmissible information.
D)all of the above

Question 48

George is a prospective juror who believes that an African American defendant is more likely to be guilty of a crime than a white defendant.According to Chapter 12, this preexisting belief that George has is considered to be

A)general prejudice.
B)preexisting prejudice.
C)generic prejudice.
D)preformed opinions.

Question 49

Johnson and Haney's (1994) study of voir dire found that

A)jurors peremptorily excused by prosecutors were not biased against the prosecution.
B)jurors peremptorily excused by the defense were not biased against the defense.
C)those selected for jury duty were similar in attitude (i.e., pro- prosecution/pro-defense) to 12 jurors selected at random.
D)all of the above

Question 50

With regard to the Five Factor Model of Personality, researchers have found that jurors who voted for acquittals in criminal cases scored higher on which of the following measures?

A)openness to experience and neuroticism
B)neuroticism and extraversion
C)extraversion and conscientiousness
D)agreeableness

Question 51

Claire is a prospective juror in a case in which there has been a lot of pretrial publicity.Claire maintains that despite the fact that she has heard of the defendant and is aware of some of the negative publicity, she will be impartial.According to information presented in Chapter 12, should Claire be believed and chosen as a juror?

A)Yes, people generally have the ability to assess whether or not they can be impartial.
B)Yes, even if she is aware of the pretrial publicity, she probably wasn't affected by it.
C)No, people do not always recognize the extent of their biases or they may not be willing to admit to them.
D)both A and B

Question 52

Pretrial publicity reflects a clash between the _______________________ Amendments.

A)2nd and 6th
B)1st and 6th
C)4th and 5th
D)5th and 6th

Question 53

What is the current status of the rights of the press to be present in the courtroom?

A)The press are currently not allowed to be present during criminal trials.
B)The press cannot be excluded from any court proceedings.
C)The press may not be excluded from actual trials, but they may be excluded from pretrial hearings.
D)The press may not be excluded from pretrial hearings, but they may be excluded from actual trials.

Question 54

Researchers have considered the relationship between juror socioeconomic status and juror behavior and have found that well-off jurors tended to be

A)harsh.
B)lenient.
C)seen as more influential.
D)both A and C

Question 55

Which of the following methods do jury consultants use?

A)conducting public opinion surveys
B)conducting focus groups
C)conducting mock trials
D)all of the above

Question 56

When Nietzel and Dillehay (1986) evaluated the effectiveness of the defense's use of jury consultants in 31 death penalty cases, they found that

A)juries recommended the death penalty in 92% of the trials in which consultants were not used by the defense versus 62% in trials with defense jury consultants.
B)juries recommended the death penalty in 61% of the trials in which consultants were not used by the defense versus 33% in trials with defense jury consultants.
C)the percentage that recommended the death penalty was essentially the same (25-28%) in trials that used and did not use jury consultants.
D)the use of defense jury consultants increased death penalty recommendations.

Question 57

A mother is on trial for murdering her baby.According to Chapter 12, those who are authoritarian are more likely to

A)be rejected during voir dire.
B)vote for conviction.
C)vote for acquittal.
D)render a not guilty verdict.

Question 58

Research by Horowitz (1980) comparing the "scientific" method of jury selection with the conventional method found that, overall

A)the scientific method was consistently superior.
B)the conventional method was consistently superior.
C)neither was superior to the other for every type of trial.
D)the traditional method was more effective only in those trials in which there were explicit relationships between personality and demographic variables and juror's votes.

Question 59

Researchers conducting experiments investigating the effects of pretrial publicity have generally found that pretrial publicity

A)can affect jurors' evaluations of the defendant's character.
B)can affect jurors' pretrial thoughts about the defendant's guilt.
C)can affect jurors' final verdicts.
D)all of the above

Question 60

What is the relationship between demographic variables and verdicts?

A)The relationships between demographic variables and verdicts, if present at all, tends to be small.
B)There does tend to be a relationship between gender and trials involving sexual harassment.
C)There does tend to be a relationship between gender and trials involving domestic violence.
D)all of the above

Question 61

If venue is not changed as a result of pretrial publicity, parties may use public opinion
surveys to guide jury selection and to address the effects of the publicity.

Question 62

The Supreme Court has recently ruled that it is forbidden to exercise peremptory challenges on the basis of religion.

Question 63

The composition of the jury is more important to jury verdicts than evidence.

Question 64

Some judges use written questionnaires instead of asking questions of prospective jurors in open court.

Question 65

The most extreme remedy for pretrial publicity effects is

A)a continuance.
B)expanded voir dire.
C)a change of venue.
D)none of the above

Question 66

Typically very few prospective jurors are excused for cause.

Question 67

Which of the following remedies for the effects of pretrial publicity is likely the most effective and thus preferred by most social scientists?

A)continuance
B)expanded voir dire
C)judicial instructions
D)change of venue

Question 68

The Supreme Court has ruled that defendants have a constitutional right to ask prospective jurors of the specifics of the pretrial publicity to which they have been exposed.

Question 69

A California law bans attorneys from removing jurors because they are homosexual.

Question 70

Which of the following is the most common method used by the courts to control for pretrial publicity?

A)postpone the trial
B)expanded voir dire
C)change of venue
D)import jurors