Rl. Poulson et al., FACTORS THAT DISCRIMINATE AMONG MOCK JURORS VERDICT SELECTIONS - IMPACT OF THE GUILTY BUT MENTALLY-ILL VERDICT OPTION, Criminal justice and behavior, 25(3), 1998, pp. 366-381
A mock insanity defense trial was presented to 327 college students wh
o were then asked to render a verdict under two conditions: with and w
ithout the ''guilty but mentally ill'' (GBMI) verdict option being ava
ilable. Among those voting GBMI, two different subgroups were identifi
ed. With respect to their attitudes and their evaluation of the eviden
ce, those who voted guilty when the GBMI verdict option was not availa
ble were similar to those who voted guilty when the GBMI was available
. Those who voted ''not guilty by reason of insanity'' (NGRI) when the
GBMI verdict option was not available were similar to those who voted
NGRI when the GBMI verdict was available. Compared to those who would
have judged the defendant guilty if the. GBMI verdict was unavailable
, these jurors were more likely to believe the defendant to be schizop
hrenic and legally insane, and to believe the defense expert witnesses
.