Racial Bias in Jury Deliberations: Conversational Patterns Underscoring Biased Convictions in the U.S.

Scholarship recognizes disproportionate prosecution of African Americans in the United States’ legal system, but research is lacking on the role of prejudice in the jury discussions that lead to convictions. This study focuses on a mock jury who deliberated and assigned guilt status to a fictionalized version of the real-life case of Fair Wayne Bryant; a Black man who received a life sentence for stealing a pair of hedge-clippers as a result of the Habitual Offender law in Louisiana. In this study, all groups were shown a case file that mimicked the key facts of the case, with racial indicators swapped to indicate a defendant who is Black, Caucasian, or with racial identifiers absent. The study found that jurors assigned the Black defendant guilt status which would result in at least 20 more years in prison, compared to the punishments allocated in both other groups. Through analysis of deliberations and interviews, this research found links between recognition of racial stereotypes and lower concern for fairness in the criminal justice system, slanted against Black defendants.

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