Chief Judge Donald Shelton's study of the effect of juror exposure to spectacular forensics on TV crime shows turned up a surprising result and is garnering national attention, including a turn on NPR. The so-called "CSI effect," in which jurors have unrealistic expectations about the power of technology to solve crime, just didn't show up in Shelton's studies. But another unexpected phenomenon emerged -- the "Blackberry effect." "The more sophisticated technological devices that jurors had,” Shelton told NPR, “the higher their expectations for the prosecutors to present evidence.”
Read the details of the studies underlying Shelton's conclusions in this Thomas M. Cooley Law Review article (PDF).
