This article points out the problems that are associated with jury deliberation and the unfortunate "hung jury." After becoming familiar with the fact that a few cases are retried because the jury members are unable to come to an agreed upon decision I decided to investigate more into it. The first recorded time a mistrial occured because a jury could not come to an agreement occured in 1807, and ever since then researchers and scholars have worked to improve the system. This article dives into the problems of coercing a jury to reach a verdict, and the history behind coercion of juries. The psychological part of coercion is the fact that persuasion is playing a role and may change others motivations. It definitely deals with social psychology and how people react to those in power like a judge for example. During a trial usually emotions run high for anyone involved. That is why this article explains the negative aspects of conducting a mistrial. That means that everything will have to be done over again. Eye witnesses may have to testify again and bring themselves to cope with emotional memories. The article then moves on to explain the history of unanimous votes by jury members and why the legal system requires unaniminity. It would be wise for those of you who are interested in the deliberation process to read this. Also because it answers the questions of how and why juries reach a verdict and how and why juries sometimes do not reach a verdict. To me juries are an intriguing group to study because psychologically it is interesting how people's decisions change due to group influences.
http://www.georgetownlawjournal.com/issues/pdf/97-1/Bove.PDF
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