Felon-Jurors’ Impact on Deliberation Satisfaction: Do They Really “Infect” the Process?

Abstract

Forty-nine states, the federal government, and the District of Colombia, statutorily restrict citizens with a felony conviction from serving as jurors. Proponents of felon-juror exclusion justify the practice by suggesting that those with a felony criminal history, if allowed to serve, would infect the adjudicative process. No data supports this assumption. Rather, evidence tends to demonstrate that those with a felony conviction welcome jury service and perform admirably as jurors. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data from a mock jury experiment, we build on this prior research, exploring the impact of diversity on mock jurors’ views of jury service. Findings reveal that diversity of experience, in the form of a felony criminal history, does not “infect” the jury process. Instead, results indicate that the inclusion of felon-jurors has either no effect on or, in some instances, actually increases juror satisfaction. Specifically, the inclusion of felon-jurors makes it more likely that members of a mixed jury view deliberations as helpful for the group and their own opinions as highly valued. These findings support prior research demonstrating the positive impacts of diversity on jury deliberations, informing literatures on felon-juror exclusion and the role of deliberations in shaping attitudes.

Keywords:

• Felon-juror
• jury
• juror exclusion
• jury deliberation
• satisfaction
• mock jury

Notes

1 In Maine, citizens with a felony criminal conviction are permitted to serve on both civil and criminal juries. Prior research suggests that citizens in Maine with a felony criminal history regularly serve on juries, value their inclusion in the process, and perform their tasks as jurors thoughtfully and conscientiously (Binnall 2018a, 2018b).

2 The criteria requires that a prospective juror must: (1) be a citizen of the U.S., (2) be 18 years of age, (3) be domiciliaries of the State of California, (4) be residents of the jurisdiction they are summoned to serve, (5) not have been convicted of malfeasance in office or a felony, (6) possess sufficient knowledge of the English language (sufficient to understand court proceedings), (7) not be already serving as grand or trial jurors in any court in the State, and (8) not be the subject of a conservatorship (Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 203(a)(1)-(8) 2010).

3 Note that data collection for this study was conducted prior to the passage of S.B. 310 in 2019, restoring juror eligibility to most Californians with a felony criminal conviction.

Additional information

Funding

The American Bar Association (No. 01-2010) and the National Science Foundation (No. SES-1228653) funded this project (IRB No. 2010–7558).