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61 Stan. L. Rev. 1335 (2008-2009)

handle is hein.journals/stflr61 and id is 1348 raw text is: STANFORD LAW REVIEW INDEX OF FIGURES AND TABLES Table 1. Annual Rank of CSI Franchise Programs Among U.S. Television Programs..................................................................................................... 1338 Table 2. Media Mentions of CSI Effect.............................................................. 1339 Table 3. The Many Effects of CSI: Typology of CSI Effects Found in Media Accounts..................................................................................................... 1345 Table 4. Percentage of Respondents Responding Very Great Prestige to Questions About the Prestige of Selected Professions ............................... 1349 Table 5. Acquittal Rates for Nine Jurisdictions in All Years Available, Starting in 1986............................................................................................................ 1360 Table 6. Linear Regression Summary of the Relationship Between Acquittal Rates Before and After the Airing of CSI in 2001, 2002, and 2003 (n=132)....... 1361 Table 7. Aggregate Number of Trials and Acquittals from 1997-2006.............. 1363 Table 8. Comparisons Between Aggregate Acquittal Rates Before and After the Airing of CSI in 2001, 2002, and 2003....................................................... 1363 Table 9. Frequency of Various Versions of CSI Effect and Frequency of Mention of Doubt.......................................................................................................... 1369 INTRODUCTION Since 2002, popular media has been disseminating serious concerns that the integrity of the criminal trial is being compromised by the effects of television drama. This concern has been dubbed the CSI effect after the popular franchise Crime Scene Investigation (CSI). Specifically, it was widely alleged that CSI, one of the most watched programs on television, was affecting jury deliberations and outcomes. It was claimed that jurors confused the idealized portrayal of the capabilities of forensic science on television with the actual capabilities of forensic science in the contemporary criminal justice system. Accordingly, jurors held inflated expectations concerning the occurrence and probative value of forensic evidence. When forensic evidence failed to reach these expectations, it was suggested, juries acquitted. In short, it was argued that, in cases lacking forensic evidence in which juries would have convicted before the advent of the CSI franchise, juries were now acquitting. The jury is central to American law. The right to a jury trial is no mere procedural formality, but a fundamental reservation of power in our constitutional structure.' Although the jury has been much maligned, the law continues to treat the jury as almost sacred, and many legal scholars and social scientists continue to defend the jury system.2 Among the longstanding criticisms of juries has been the claim that juries are subject to media bias. Psychologists have argued that juries can be influenced by pretrial publicity in specific cases, lending support for the need 1. Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 306 (2004). 2. See, e.g., Shari Seidman Diamond & Mary R. Rose, Real Juries, 1 ANN. REV. L. & Soc. Sci. 255 (2005). [Vol. 61:1335 1 336

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