title: Commentary: Perception of remorse by mock jurors in a capital murder trial.
abstract: The study by Corwin et al. adds to the emerging but limited data on the impact of defendant remorse on sentencing decisions. The authors studied verbal and nonverbal expressions of defendant remorse and whether they were perceived as remorseful by mock jurors. They found that incongruent verbal and nonverbal behavior, as well as mock jurors' willingness to approach emotional situations, resulted in more lenient sentences for defendants. An overarching and as yet unanswered validity concern regarding this line of research in general is whether the use of undergraduate mock jurors reliably models real jurors in actual courtroom settings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Butler Hospital, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
authors.forename: Leonardo M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Batista
authors.forename: Wade
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Myers
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D001364:Awareness; D002203:Capital Punishment / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003416:Criminal Law / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D004645:Empathy; D005104:Expert Testimony / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D005260:Female; D006167:Guilt; D006708:Homicide / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011329:Prisoners / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology*