Beliefs Guide Most Jurors, Poll Suggests

Most Americans eligible to serve on a jury say they would act on their own beliefs of right and wrong regardless of legal instructions from a judge, according to a poll. Three out of four potential jurors agreed with the statement: “Whatever a judge says the law is, jurors should do what they believe is the right thing.” The poll also suggests potential jurors were more likely to feel they could not be fair or impartial toward a gay or lesbian defendant than toward a defendant from other minority groups. The poll was taken for the National Law Journal and Decision Quest, a trial consulting company. The phone survey of 1,016 adults eligible for jury duty was taken Oct. 2-4 and had a margin or error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.