Comments on: How Statistics Fool Juries

By: Chris Higgins

Chris Higgins — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:54:30 +0000

@Rich – well, long story short, I didn’t think the prosecution met their burden of proof — I thought the defense effectively refuted all the evidence presented, and I just didn’t see a case.

Having said that, the jury standard in Oregon allows for a conviction with a certain number of jurors disagreeing with the majority (I think it was 10 for, 2 against, or some similar number). I was one of those two who disagreed with the conviction, but it went through.

It was a little amusing — even though I disagreed with the majority of the jury members, I tried to help them talk through their issues and respect the rules as they worked to reach an agreement. It was amazing to me how often people directly ignored instructions from the judge (perhaps they just forgot?), and had to be reminded what was and wasn’t allowed. For example, many people thought we should go ahead and convict because the defendant seemed well-off, and presumably had insurance that would pay for the damages, which would give the plaintiff a better life, which they felt he deserved. (!!!) Oh well.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:42:42 +0000

I have to say – regardless of my personal opinion – I think that the sheer amount of statistics and information had an impact on the O.J. Simpson case. I think that the jurors were SO overwhelmed with the amount of data being thrown at them, that they didn’t have much choice but to return a not guilty verdict. The “reasonable doubt” dissipated with the massive number of “experts” they had to consider.

By: Rich

Rich — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:43:17 +0000

Chris,
So…what was your jury’s decision and how did it arrive at it?

By: Zach

Zach — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:53:55 +0000

In the economics book More Sex Is Safer Sex, the author argued that we should have professional juries. This talk gives further support for that case.

By: Eve R.

Eve R. — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:17:59 +0000

That was so interesting! I am totally subscribing to these talks!

I remember doing the coin toss experiment in my statistics class but it was not nearly as enlightening as this video.

By: Southern Buddhist

Southern Buddhist — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:40:18 +0000

TED Talks are awesome — everyone who loves Mental Floss should go to iTunes and subscribe. It’s basically a convention of very smart people and they invite smart people with big ideas or different ideas or just interesting ideas and stories to tell to talk to them.