2 jurors likely dominating debate, expert says

Of the 12 jurors who are deadlocked on whether Brian Nichols should be put to death, as few as two probably are dominating the debate, an expert says.

And time may be the crucial element in whether dissenting jurors hold out or ultimately join the majority in a verdict, said juror attitude researcher John W. Clark III.

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The Nichols jury Thursday said it was deadlocked 9-3 on Nichols’ punishment. The same jury earlier found him guilty of murdering four people, including a judge, in his escape from a rape trial at the Fulton County courthouse.

The guilty verdicts depended more on evaluating evidence, and the jurors now are into emotional territory, Clark said.

“You’ve probably got two people who are fighting — one for the nine and one for the three,” said Clark, the criminal justice program coordinator for the Atlantic region of Troy University, based in Norfolk, Va.

Clark, who has interviewed about 3,000 people after they served on juries, said other jurors may “chime in,” but most are listening to the few who lead the debate.

“This is where personality enters now. This is where the extroverted jurors — the jurors who are very outgoing, very assertive, very much willing to speak their mind — this is when they dominate a deliberation,” Clark said Thursday.

At least one of the three in the minority probably is one of those dominant personalities “and is not going to change,” he said.

But even the hardest attitude could change with time, Clark said. Superior Court Judge James Bodiford said Thursday he would tell the jury to keep trying.

“If he lets this go on for days, then the three can be beat down,” Clark said.

Long trials take an emotional and even a physical toll on jurors, Clark said, and “after a while jurors get tired of fooling with it.” They can end the ordeal “with the stroke of a pen,” he said.

“They’ve got to be exhausted,” he said.

Whatever the outcome, Clark said, the jurors will need psychological support. He said a handful of counties now offer jurors a “debriefing” and access to mental health counseling.

“I would urge the judge to offer these jurors some sort of mental health counseling, someone to speak to about this event that they went through.”