Race, Gender, and Juries: Evidence from North Carolina
利用北卡罗来纳州重罪审判数据,发现陪审团种族和性别构成显著影响定罪概率,律师策略性使用无因回避,且州无因回避使黑人被告定罪率上升2.4-2.9个百分点。
This paper uses data from felony jury trials in North Carolina to show that the race and gender composition of the randomly selected jury pool has a significant effect on the probability of conviction, attorneys adjust peremptory-challenge strategies in accordance, and state peremptory challenges have a positive impact on the conviction rate when the defendant is a black male. Jury pools with higher proportions of white men are more likely to convict black male defendants relative to white male defendants. Jury pools with a higher proportion of black men are more likely to acquit all defendants, especially black men. Attorneys use peremptory challenges strategically in accordance with these results, which are robust to a wide set of controls, including county and judge fixed effects. Each state peremptory challenge is correlated with a 2.4–2.9-percentage-point increase in the conviction rate when the defendant is black.