TY  - JOUR
AU  - Anwar,Shamena
AU  - Bayer,Patrick
AU  - Hjalmarsson,Randi
TI  - The Role of Age in Jury Selection and Trial Outcomes
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 17887
PY  - 2012
Y2  - March 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17887
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17887.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Shamena Anwar
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Ave
Heinz College, Hamburg Hall Room 2116D
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Tel: 714-913-5172
E-Mail: shamena@andrew.cmu.edu

Patrick Bayer
Department of Economics
Duke University
213 Social Sciences
Durham, NC 27708
Tel: 919/660-1832
E-Mail: patrick.bayer@duke.edu

Randi Hjalmarsson
Queen Mary
University of London
School of Economics and Finance
Mile End Road
London E1 4NS, UK
E-Mail: r.hjalmarsson@qmul.ac.uk
AB  - This paper uses data from 700+ felony trials in Sarasota and Lake Counties in Florida from 2000-2010 to examine the role of age in jury selection and trial outcomes. The results imply that prosecutors are more likely to use their peremptory challenges to exclude younger members of the jury pool, while defense attorneys exclude older potential jurors. To examine the causal impact of age on trial outcomes, the paper employs a research design that isolates the effect of the random variation in the age composition of the pool of eligible jurors called for jury duty. Consistent with the jury selection patterns, the empirical evidence implies that older jurors are significantly more likely to convict. Results are robust to the inclusion of broad set of controls including county, time, and judge fixed effects. These findings imply that many cases are decided differently for reasons that are completely independent of the true nature of the evidence in the case – i.e., that there is substantial randomness in the application of criminal justice.
ER  -