User:Astrosfan1212/Expert witness

Expert Witnesses Effect on Juries

Expert witnesses in America have a profound effect on the juries. A study by McCarthy Wilcox and David Niamh Nic shows what arbitrary factors go into a jury's decision. Things like wearing glasses or carrying a briefcase made jurors believe expert witnesses. The study also found that experience in the particular field is more important than overall education. This is useful in American systems which are adversarial. Expert witnesses also cost a substantial amount of money for the case so being able to spend the money efficiently is important. Due to the adversarial nature of the American judicial system expert witnesses are at times put against each other. These small advantages can be huge.

There are cases where expert witnesses are vital to the argument. Oftentimes in domestic violence cases expert witnesses are relied on to explain situations where they typically lack physical evidence. Domestic violence cases are also examples of when expert witnesses can help explain mental states of both the victim and the defendant. We can see this used in the case People v. Brown, a domestic violence case that used expert testimony to justify the victim's actions explain the signs. Expert witnesses can also explain the guidelines in a case. An example of this is in Commonwealth v. Two Electronic Poker Games where the justices relied upon an expert witness to identify what classified as a gambling machine. This is a case where the justices deferred to the expert witness in their specific area of expertise to explain the law.

There are times when an expert witness testimony needs to be thrown out. This can be seen in the case United States v. Dukagjini, in this case the expert witness testimony was deemed that it should not be used in the case but the court believed that the testimony did not effect the jury and the testimony was unnecessary. The court ruled that the testimony must have "a scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge." There are times when a bad expert witness testimony can be so severe that it will require a new trial all together. An expert witness can also be assigned by the court when the court determines an issue needs explaining as explained by, Steven Lubet and Elizabeth I. Boals in their book on expert testimony. The ultimate goal of the criminal justice system is to find the truth. If the court determines that an expert witness can help accomplish that goal then the court will assign one.