On the Effect of Jury Size

Abstract

In Williams vs. Florida, the Supreme Court compares twelve-man and six-man juries and claims that “there is no discernible difference between the results reached by the two different sized juries.” Walbert (1971) uses a simple probabilistic argument to refute the Court's opinion. Subsequently, Gelfand and Solomon (1974, p. 36) seem to contradict Walbert and side with the Court. This note reaffirms Walbert's result.

Key Words:

• Probability
• Conviction rates
• Jury size