Abstract
This juror-simulation study tested whether expert testimony about police relations with Black/Indigenous persons would mitigate potential verdict discrepancies by making race a salient issue, and whether perceived police legitimacy would predict perceptions of race salience and/or effectiveness of the salience manipulation. Jury-eligible community members (N = 392) read a trial transcript in which the defendant claims self-defense for the killing of a police officer. We manipulated defendant race (Black/Indigenous/White) and the presence of expert testimony in which a sociologist described the experience of racialized persons with police. Participants provided verdicts, rated perceptions that racial issues featured prominently in the trial (i.e., perceived race salience), and completed a police legitimacy measure. Results revealed non-significant effects of defendant race and expert testimony on verdicts. Those higher in perceptions of police legitimacy had a greater likelihood of voting guilty and less favourable attitudes toward the expert, with the opposite pattern for those higher in perceived race salience.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 All participants were Canadian citizens, fluent in English, 18 years of age or older, and had not been convicted of an indictable offence for which they did not receive a record suspension. Additionally, participants were not employed in an occupation that precludes participation in a jury in Canada (e.g., member of the legal profession; see Juries Act, R.S.O., 1990, for an exhaustive list).
2 In Canada, “irrespective of whether a murder is planned and deliberate on the part of any person, murder is first degree murder when the victim is…a police officer,” Criminal Code 231(4)(a).
3 The dataset and supplementary material can be accessed on Open Science Framework at: https://osf.io/m3ysw/?view_only=347af1ac114246538592e49ccc3e6a5d.
4 Perceived police legitimacy was measured after verdict to preserve the legal verisimilitude of the verdict measure. Notably, this measure was not affected by defendant race (p = .71), expert testimony (p = .20), or their interaction (p = .59), suggesting that perceptions of police legitimacy are stable.