Jury Bias: Identifying its prevalence and significance in discriminatory verdicts

all-white, prejudiced jury convicted the boys of rape several times, even with an undeniable lack of evidence. Eight of the nine young men were unjustly sentenced to death. This devastating case led to two additional Supreme Court rulings on jury diversification in Patterson v the State of Alabama, and Norris v the state of Alabama. Both of these cases involved false rape accusations against African American boys, in which all-white juries gave a prejudiced verdict. These detrimental examples of prejudice within the justice system brought attention to the issue of all-white juries and was extremely important in mobilising the Civil Rights movement’s fight against legal challenges.

verdicts, so are an important predictor of how a juror will decide, regardless of the evidence presented. This shocking evidence suggests a major change in the system is a crucial necessity in order to accurately and fairly achieve justice.