The Optimal Jury Size When Jury Deliberation Follows a Random Walk

12 Pages Posted: 25 May 2006

See all articles by Eric Helland

Eric Helland

Claremont McKenna College - Robert Day School of Economics and Finance; RAND

Yaron Raviv

Claremont McKenna College - Robert Day School of Economics and Finance

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: October 2005

Abstract

The existing literature does not agree on the optimal jury size. We demonstrate that the probability of type I and type II errors is not sensitive to the number of jurors under the following three conditions: jurors received independent signals about a defendant's guilt during the evidence stage of the trial; the jurors truthfully reveal their signal before deliberations in the first ballot via their vote; and the jury deliberation can be modeled as a random walk. Since the opportunity cost of jury service is positive, this implies the optimal number of jurors is one.

Keywords: Jury Deliberation, Jury Size

JEL Classification: K4, D7

Suggested Citation

Helland, Eric A. and Raviv, Yaron, The Optimal Jury Size When Jury Deliberation Follows a Random Walk (October 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=904356 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.904356

Eric A. Helland (Contact Author)

Claremont McKenna College - Robert Day School of Economics and Finance ( email )

500 E. Ninth St.
Claremont, CA 91711-6420
United States
909-607-7275 (Phone)
909-621-8243 (Fax)

RAND ( email )

1776 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA
United States

Yaron Raviv

Claremont McKenna College - Robert Day School of Economics and Finance ( email )

500 E. Ninth St.
Claremont, CA 91711-6420
United States
909-607-7305 (Phone)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
137
Abstract Views
1,510
Rank
257,227
PlumX Metrics