An alternative method of capital jury selection

The purpose of this research was to develop and evaluate an alternative method of capital jury selection. Subjects who were classified as excludable and nonexcludable from capital jury service were exposed to a crime questionnaire which contained 16 brutal crimes. Sixty-five percent of the excludables indicated that they would consider imposing the death penalty in one or more scenarios, with 76% maintaining the new position 48 hours later. Furthermore, the rehabilitated excludables were significantly more tolerant of ambiguity and more due process oriented than the nonexcludables. A second study showed that the crime questionnaire did produce a small amount of bias against the defendants in terms of conviction rates and penalties. The advantages of the alternative system for providing a more objective, standardized questioning procedure and a more representative, less attitudinally biased jury are discussed.     

The effects of impeachment evidence and limiting instructions on individual and group decision making

Two studies were conducted to investigate the effects of impeachment evidence in civil cases. According to the Federal Rules of Evidence, impeachment evidence can be used to judge defendant credibility, but not to infer bad character or harmful propensity. Jury-eligible subjects watched a realistic videotaped trial in which prior convictions for perjury and character evidence of honesty or dishonesty were manipulated. In Study 1, subjects provided individual judgments, and in Study 2, subjects engaged in group deliberations. Impeachment evidence did not strongly affect verdicts, and character evidence of honesty decreased liability only when limiting instructions were given. In both studies, however, the evidence produced legally permissible and impermissible inferences. Prior convictions reduced perceived credibility and increased inferences of negligent propensity. Evidence of dishonesty produced lower credibility ratings and negative character impressions. Credibility, character, and propensity assessments were all important in the verdict-reaching process, suggesting that juror's decisions do not conform to the requirements of the Rules of Evidence.This research was supported by National Science Foundation under grant no. SES-8411599 awarded to the first author. We would like to thank Richard Lempert for his helpful comments on an earlier draft, and Jerry Busmeyer, Maureen Crowley, Myrna Gaidos, David Hullinger, Randy Larsen, Bill Little, Charles Nelson, Richard Schweickert, Harold Seymour, and Al Solomon for serving as witnesses in the trial videotapes.     

Context for specific episodes of marital violence: Gender and severity of violence differences

The present study was designed to evaluate the context of marital violence through husbands' and wives' accounts of the worst violent episode in the year prior to assessment. The primary objective was to examine severity (mild or severe) and gender (husbands or wives) differences in reports of the worst episode of marital aggression using a functional analysis conceptualization. That is, within the specific episode, current stressors, setting events, outcome, and function of aggressive behavior(s) and victimization experiences were evaluated. Sixty-two couples, who presented for marital treatment over a three year period and also reported at least one episode of physical aggression in the past year, participated. In most cases, marital aggression appeared to reflect an outgrowth of conflict between both partners. However, wives consistently reported that their aggressive husbands had engaged in more psychological coercion and aggression than they as a marital conflict escalated to physical violence. Further, there was a tendency for wives to use severe physical aggression in self-defense more often than husbands.     

Skilled unemployment and the creation of academic spin-offs: a recession-push hypothesis

Push factors associated with necessity entrepreneurship are largely neglected in the academic entrepreneurship literature. We link research on technology transfer to the literature on opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship, showing that the rate of academic spin-off creation is positively associated with the skilled unemployment rate. This longitudinal study of 559 spin-offs launched between 1999 and 2013, which controlled for several university- and context-level factors, showed that a higher level of unemployment reduced the probability of academic spin-off creation up to a threshold, beyond which the effect was reversed. By contrast, the relative skilled unemployment level was related positively to the probability of academic spin-off, particularly high-tech spin-off, creation. The relationship between the level of skilled unemployment and the creation of high-tech spin-offs was moderated positively by university research orientation and regional research and human capital intensity.     

Quantitative PCR overestimation of DNA in samples contaminated with tin

Metals can pose challenges while conducting forensic DNA analysis. The presence of metal ions in evidence-related DNA extracts can degrade DNA or inhibit PCR as applied to DNA quantification (real-time PCR or qPCR) and/or STR amplification, leading to low success in STR profiling. Different metal ions were spiked into 0.2 and 0.5 ng of human genomic DNA in an “inhibition study” and the impact was evaluated by qPCR using the Quantifiler™ Trio DNA Quantification Kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and an in-house SYBR Green assay. This study reports on a contradictory finding specific to tin (Sn) ions, which caused at least a 38,000-fold overestimation of DNA concentration when utilizing Quantifiler Trio. This was explained by the raw and multicomponent spectral plots, which indicated that Sn suppresses the Quantifiler Trio passive reference dye (Mustang Purple™, MP) at ion concentrations above 0.1 mM. This effect was not observed when DNA was quantified using SYBR Green with ROX™ as the passive reference, nor when DNA was extracted and purified prior to Quantifiler Trio. The results show that metal contaminants can interfere with qPCR-based DNA quantification in unexpected ways and may be assay dependent. The results also highlight the importance of qPCR as a quality check to determine steps for sample cleanup prior to STR amplification that may be similarly impacted by metal ions. Forensic workflows should recognize the risk of inaccurate DNA quantification of samples that are collected from substrates containing tin.     

Sequence polymorphism of mitochondrial D-loop DNA in the Taiwanese Han population

In order to demonstrate the sequence diversity of mitochondrial D-loop DNA in the Taiwanese Han population, we established a database of 155 unrelated individuals. For each individual, the complete 980bp DNA region from the 5' end of HVI to 3' end of HVII segment was sequenced. In these 155 sequence data, 149 different haplotypes were observed, amongst these haplotypes, 144 were unique, 4 were found in 2 individuals and 1 was found in 3 individuals. When compare to the Anderson sequence, 144 transitions, 24 transversions, 5 insertions and 5 deletions were found. Eight positions exhibited more than one polymorphic sequence, six exhibited two variants while two exhibited three variants. Over the 1024bp that was analysed, pairwise differences between the sequences were 11.35+/-3.53bp. The sequence and nucleotide diversity were 0.9994 and 0.0116, respectively. The probability of two individuals randomly matching over the entire control region was 0.007. The diversity in the mitochondrial D-loop indicates the value of this locus for casework within Taiwan.