Expert evidence and hearsay: The influence of "secondhand" information on jurors' decisions.
- 1 January 1995
- journal article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Law and Human Behavior
- Vol. 19 (4) , 345-362
- https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01499136
Abstract
In upholding the admission of expert evidence, some courts have held that hearsay information conveyed via an expert may be admitted as long as the jury is instructed to ignore the facts asserted in the hearsay statements and to use the information only for determining the weight to attribute to the expert's opinion. Results of a mock juror simulation indicated that although hearsay elements conveyed via an expert were perceived as less likely compared to a condition in which the information was independently admitted at trial, it was not completely ignored by the jurors. Further, the findings tended to suggest that the impact of the hearsay on verdict decisions operated primarily by influencing evaluations regarding the likelihood of the hearsay events as opposed to judgments regarding the expert testimony.Keywords
This publication has 15 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Crush Syndrome Revisited (1940–1990)Nephron, 1990
- Nonlinear propagation in optical fibers in high-dispersion regimeOptics Communications, 1988
- Evidence evaluation in complex decision making.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986
- The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986
- On the inefficacy of limiting instructions: When jurors use prior conviction evidence to decide on guilt.Law and Human Behavior, 1985
- Soil nitrogen availability under grassland and cultivated cornPlant and Soil, 1982
- Inadmissible evidence and juror verdicts.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1981
- A critical review of the jury simulation paradigm: The case of defendant characteristics.Law and Human Behavior, 1979
- Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes.Psychological Review, 1977
- Effects of inadmissible Evidence on the Decisions of Simulated Jurors: A Moral DilemmaJournal of Applied Social Psychology, 1973