ABSTRACT
This chapter presents data that offer a novel approach to the understanding of juries’ behavior because they report the actual content of jury deliberations. The psychiatrists in the incest trial testified that the defendant’s father either died or deserted the family when the defendant was very young and that a strong emotional dependence developed between mother and son which was sharply severed when a stepfather appeared on the scene. Some jurors believe that the plea of insanity is a popular defense and that it is especially popular among persons charged with unusually heinous or violent crimes. They believe also that the juries’ verdicts in such cases generally favor the defendant. The psychiatrists’ testimony was reviewed in almost every deliberation. Many of the discussions focused on the problem of distinguishing between the expert’s function and the jury’s responsibility.
