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The Truth About Character Evidence

By Lawrence Koplow, Esq.

I found a great website for information on jury research.  Kathy Kellerman is a communications consultant who regularly posts answers to questions about how jurors make decisions.  She has an informative post about the effectiveness of evidence of a defendant's good character in a criminal trial.  I think most people (including attorneys) will be surprised by what the research concludes about this type of evidence. Question: Does character evidence help or hurt defendants in criminal trials? Answer: Recent research by Hunt and Budesheim (2004) studied the effects of positive character evidence when offered alone, and when followed by a prosecutor cross-examining about specific bad acts.   These researchers found that, on its own, general descriptions of a defendant's positive personality characteristics had little effect on juror decision-making; that is, positive character evidence did not reduce guilt perceptions or decisions to convict...continue to full post

Full post as published by Arizona DUI Defense Blog on October 13, 2008 (boomark / email).