Study: Laypeople (Jurors) May Misjudge the Weight of Manner of Death Testimony

An interesting article was published on May 31, 2024, in The Wrongful Conviction Law Review, entitled, "Not Scientific" to Whom? Laypeople Misjudge Manner of Death Determinations as Scientific and Definitive," available HERE.

Manner of death testimony by medical examiners can have significant ramifications in a civil or criminal trial. This article summarizes two experiments that were conducted using mock juries who evaluated medical examiner's testimony in a murder trial. The authors conclude that these studies revealed, "a worrisome disconnect between how medical examiners characterize their judgments (i.e., as nonscientific and tentative) and how jurors appraise those judgments (i.e., as highly scientific and practically dispositive)." The article concludes by addressing ways to deal with this disconnect.