1998/03/01 by Timothy Feddersen, Wolfgang Pesendorfer · 18 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems #Game Theory and Voting Systems #Legal and Constitutional Studies
paper · doi:10.2307/2585926
It is often suggested that requiring juries to reach a unanimous verdict reduces the probability of convicting an innocent defendant while increasing the probability of acquitting a guilty defendant. We construct a model that demonstrates how strategic voting by jurors undermines this basic intuition. We show that the unanimity rule may lead to a high probability of both kinds of error and that the probability of convicting an innocent defendant may actually increase with the size of the jury. Finally, we demonstrate that a wide variety of voting rules, including simple majority rule, lead to much lower probabilities of both kinds of error.