Book

Description

In this novel examination of juror decision-making, forensic psychologist Danielle Schulte Lewis brings readers inside a rarely explored perspective: the lived experience of jurors who helped convict an innocent person. Through in-depth interviews with jurors from wrongful conviction cases, Schulte Lewis exposes the unseen cognitive errors, emotional pressures, and narrative shortcuts that quietly shape verdicts in American courtrooms. Drawing on decades of psychological research—alongside the voices of real jurors—Schulte Lewis reveals how jurors who genuinely believe they are acting with fairness and integrity can still rely on personal worldviews, “commonsense” reasoning, and incomplete narratives rather than legal instruction or factual evidence. The result is a powerful, accessible, and unsettling portrait of how bias, storytelling, and systemic inequity intersect to produce life-altering injustice. More than an analysis, this book offers a roadmap for reform. Lewis details how attorneys, judges, and the legal system can better educate and prepare jurors, close narrative gaps at trial, and counteract the cognitive vulnerabilities that lead to faulty verdicts. Urgent and deeply human, this work challenges long-held assumptions about the jury system and illuminates what must change to prevent future wrongful convictions.