Race salience and attorney statements: the unique role of defense opening statements and closing arguments
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Race salience and attorney statements: the unique role of defense opening statements and closing arguments Bradlee W. Gamblin 1
&
Andre Kehn 2
Accepted: 22 October 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate how the race salience effect influences juror decision making when manipulated through defense attorney statements. The literature is unclear regarding the ability of attorney statements to manipulate race salience and the individual influence of opening statements and closing arguments in creating the effect. In the current study, 207 undergraduate White mock jurors participated in a simulated criminal assault case in which defendant race was made salient through defense attorney statements (through opening statements, closing arguments, or both). Results indicated a race salience effect for verdict choice when race was salient and suggested that closing arguments may be particularly important in creating this effect. Our results also suggest that race salience creates an outgroup favoritism effect rather than the equalizing effect identified in early research. Implications of these findings for the race salience and juror decision making literature are discussed along with implications for actual court cases. Keywords Race salience . Opening statements . Closing arguments . Juror decision making
In the 1995 O. J. Simpson murder trial, the defense centered their case around the suggestion that the Los Angeles Police Department, particularly a White officer named Mark Fuhrman, had planted and fabricated evidence in order to frame Simpson for the murder, and that they had done so because of racial bias against Simpson (Toobin, 1994). Evidence in support of potential racial bias was considered so important to the defense’s case that Johnnie Cochran, one of Simpson’s attorneys, highlighted the role of racism throughout his closing arguments: ‘…This man [Fuhrman] had the power to carry out his racist views and that is what is so troubling… This man is an indiscriminate racist… this man over the time of these interviews uses the ‘N’ word 42 times’ (Walraven, 1995; par. 26–28). Statements such as these serve not only to remind jurors of relevant trial information but also to create a frame (racial bias) through which to interpret the case. Research on the race * Bradlee W. Gamblin [email protected] 1
Division of Behavioral Sciences, Northwest Missouri State University, Colden Hall 2380, 800 University Drive, Maryville, MO 64468, USA
2
Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA
salience effect (Sommers & Ellsworth, 2000) indicates that White jurors display outgroup racial bias in trial outcomes when race is not relevant to the case, but do not show bias when race is explicitly relevant. Thus, by highlighting the racial aspect of a client’s case during closing arguments, attorneys may be able to mitigate any juror racial bias that might have otherwise impacted trial outcomes. However, there
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