The process of interpreting evidence in a court of law is pertinent for verdict deliberation. Evidence, however, is often open to a variety of interpretations. Studies have shown that factors other than evidential information presented in court can influence whether the verdict is ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’ and, in cases of ‘mock jurors’, can influence how punitive or lenient a sentence should be...

Average accuracy of jury verdicts for a set of cases can be studied empirically and systematically even when the correct verdict cannot be known. The key is to obtain a second rating of the verdict, for example, the judge’s, as in the recent study of criminal cases in the United States by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC). That study, like the famous Kalven-Zeisel study, showed only m...