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Thomas Twisdale

ENGL 202-13

Whitney Waters

11/5/2023
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Lynch, M., Kidd, T., & Shaw, E. (2022). The subtle effects of implicit bias instructions. Law

& Policy, 44(1), 98–124. https://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12181.

The article The Subtle Effects of Implicit Bias Instructions covers the court's attempted

solution to combat implicit bias in juries using implicit bias training. First, what are jury

instructions? Jury instructions are in their ideal form used to reduce biased verdicts and

decisions in the court made by the jury whether it be bias from race or other sources. And Commented [GU1]: dont start a sentence with and

to limit the effect of stereotypes on the jury and give the jury a more unbiased lens. They

conducted the study in a 2X2X2 format with black or white defendants and black or white

witnesses and the bias instructions or without bias instructions or training. The study was

conducted with 2 groups with one being majority white and the other not, then listening to

the trials with a black and white witness and black and white defendant. The convictions of

both the black and white defendants remained mostly similar with or without implicit bias

instructions and it was found that the instructions did not have a large impact on

counteracting bias in jurors as there was not much difference in the groups with or without

the training. The article ends by stating that if this is going to be the counter to implicit bias

the instructions need to be more specific on a case-by-case basis as this is not something a

one size fits all solution can solve.

The authors of the article are Mona Lynch, a Professor at the University of California,

Irvine, Criminology and Law & Society, Taylor Kidd, a Professor at the University of

California, Irvine, Criminology and Law & Society, and Emily Shaw, a Professor at the

University of California, Irvine, Psychology and Social and Behavioral Sciences. I plan to
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use the article to state that the criminal justice system knows about the problem of implicit

bias and is trying to find a solution to the problem and go over what they have learned

during their attempts to find a solution to the problem.

McKimmie, B. M., Masters, J. M., Masser, B. M., Schuller, R. A., & Terry, D. J. (2012).

Stereotypical and counterstereotypical defendants: Who is he and what was the case

against her? Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 19(3), 343–354.

https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030505.

The article covers another way the jury may be influenced by the defendant, and it happens

to be with the defendant's gender instead of whether they are in handcuffs or not. The

researchers stated that they used 3 groups of test or mock jurors with 101 people in the first

group, 144 in the second, and 113 in the third group. The disadvantages of a stereotypical

defendant were covered next and the disadvantages of being a stereotypical defendant were

that generally, they received longer prison sentences than their less stereotypical

counterparts. The stereotypes came from gender, race, ethnicity, and appearance. This is

further reinforced in gender you are more likely to see a male defendant than a female

defendant and they typically receive lesser sentences for the same crime which is where the

study comes in. In the first group of mock jurors, the study found that the jurors considered

the evidence and the strength of the evidence with the male defendant, but not with the

female defendant. In the results for group 1, it was found that on both sides whether the

case was weak or strong, the male was more likely to be found guilty by the jurors. The

method used was pilot studies for all the groups and in the second group, they used pictures
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of the defendant which they did not do in the first study where they simply referred to them

as Mr. or Ms. The results of the second group were the same as the first group with males

being more likely to be convicted also included if the jury could remember court evidence

and identify the defendant with most identifying the woman with less than half the men

and more people remembering information during the male’s case than females.

The authors: Blake McKimmie, Jane Masters, Barbara Masser, Regina Schuller, and

Deborah Terry are all reputable Professors and researchers from the University of

Queensland and the University of York. I plan to use this article to bring up other ways

jurors can be influenced and use stats gathered from their studies to support my arguments.

Vallano, J. P. (2022, October 1). Is justice blind if we say it is? Monitor on Psychology.

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/10/jurors-implicit-

bias#:~:text=Research%20on%20schemas%20and%20stereotypes%20substantiates%20the

%20potential,Psychology%20and%20Law%2C%20Vol.%2028%2C%20No.%205%2C%2

02021%29.

In the Article Is Justice Blind if we say it is? The author Jonathan Vallano, who has a Ph.D.

in Psychology and focused on legal Psychology, informs the audience of a court case

involving Ervine Davenport and Annette White. The charges against Ervine Davenport

were that while he was driving, he “allegedly assaulted and killed Annette White” who was

in the passenger seat. He was convicted of the crime and later appealed his case to the

Michigan Court of Appeals stating that he believed he was not given a fair trial as he had

handcuffs and restraints on him and that it influenced the jury's decision to convict him.
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During the appeal process which was conducted by the Michigan Court of Appeals and the

SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States), the court polled the jurors who convicted

Ervine Davenport and 7 out of the 12 jurors did not remember the shackles on Ervine at all.

The SCOTUS denied his appeal on account of overwhelming evidence and the jurors not

remembering if he had shackles on in the first place. Dr. Vallano then states that courts

began to question how the defendant’s view affects members of the jury or can trust them

to be unbiased even with the defendant influences the jury’s opinion of the defendant.

Multiple research studies are brought up in the fields of criminal justice and psychology

and found that jurors on more likely to convict something if they meet the stereotypical

image of someone who commits a crime compared to someone who does not look like they

commit crimes.

As an Associate Professor at the University of Pitt-Greensburg Dr. Vallano, who has a

Ph.D. in Legal Psychology and with most of his studies involving the legal aspect of

psychology is a reputable source of information for legal topics that deal with psychology.

I plan to use this source in my podcast to show what an example of implicit bias is and talk

about what type of people are more likely to be affected by this than others. Also plan to Commented [GU2]: dont start a sentence with also

use this to talk about how courts are trying to mitigate the problem and how they are doing

so.

Weeks, V. (2018). Fairness in the exceptions: Trusting juries on matters of race. Michigan

Journal of Race & Law, 23(23.1), 189–210.

https://doi.org/10.36643/mjrl.23.1.fairness.
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The article states that implicit bias is deeply rooted in our society and most people do not

realize that they have these biases whether it be racial or gender-focused or based on a

person's appearance. In the court case Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado he was accused of

committing unwanted sexual harassment and conduct. A court overturned a guilty verdict

after it was found out that one of the jury members made blatantly anti-Hispanic statements

towards Hispanic people and “that he was more culpable because he was Mexican and

Mexicans general sexual view against women”. Then it covers how juries can overrule a Commented [GU3]: this doesn't flow well as a sentence,
add some [brackets and words] to clear up the meaning
behind his racist comments
verdict if they think it was driven by implicit bias when there is a guilty or not guilty

verdict. This is a problem in the criminal justice system for people who fall into

stereotypes, and they are affected negatively by this. Implicit bias and who is affected was

covered next and it was stated that black defendants are more likely to be victims of

implicit bias than their white counterparts. In a study, it was found that students are more

likely to associate guilty and negative words with black faces than with white faces. They

did this by having students see faces and matching words and guilty and not guilty verdicts

to the faces. The study also found that people who associated black faces with warm or

positive words were more likely to find black faces guilty, so implicit attitude and explicit

attitude do not always align. The article gives 2 forms of mitigation, with one being in Commented [GU4]: this is also well summarized

Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado where the Supreme Court allowed the overruling of a verdict

after the verdict was given to help prevent implicit bias from disrupting justice. The other

solution is jury nullification which allows the jury to give the defendant a not guilty verdict

regardless of whether they think they broke the law or not. These two solutions help to

mitigate the problem as the court system has given up on getting rid of the problem as it is

too deeply rooted in our society to get rid of.

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The author of the article is Virginia Weeks, and she is a University of Maryland J.D.

candidate and has the backing and support of the Michigan Journal of Race & Law which

gives her credibility as she was checked over by editors of a respected journal. I plan to use

this source to bring up race and how it also affects jury biases and could influence their

verdicts. I also plan to make use of the mitigations that the article provided as ways the

court system is trying to solve the problem of implicit and explicit bias in the courtroom.