Enhancing fairness in DNA jury trials
نویسندگان
چکیده
Increasingly, a single forensic expert guides the jury through the DNA evidence; in five out of six DNA cases studied in New South Wales, this was the model (Findlay 2008). The presence of DNA evidence predicts convictions. Archival research revealed that juries were 23 times more likely to vote guilty in homicide cases and 33 times more likely to vote guilty in sexual assault cases when DNA evidence was admitted (Briody 2004). Concern has arisen that the safety of these verdicts may be compromised by widespread misconceptions about the infallibility of DNA evidence (Gans & Urbas 2002) by jurors who are ‘overawed by the scientific garb in which the evidence is presented and attach greater weight to it than it is capable of bearing’ (R v Duke 1979 22 SASSR 46 per King CJ: 48). Field studies, interviews with actual jurors and jury simulations confirm that individual jurors struggle to understand and apply the statistical information conveyed by forensic experts about the likelihood that the DNA match occurred randomly, by chance alone (Findlay & Grix 2003; Lieberman et al. 2008; Schklar & Diamond 1999; Wheate 2006).
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