1/5/98

Editors, news directors: Please contact Dwight Woodward at Ohio University News Services to arrange an interview with psychology Professor Jack Arbuthnot.

ATHENS, Ohio -- Highly emotional testimony by victims and friends of Terry Nichols in the Oklahoma City bombing trial won't affect jurors in their deliberations during the penalty phase of the trial, according to Ohio University Professor of Psychology Jack Arbuthnot.

News reports have noted that some jurors cried during testimony by survivors and relatives of the 169 people killed in the bombing, and Nichols' attorney had argued for a mistrial after a prosecution witness became enraged during her testimony about losing her 4-year-old daughter in the bombing.

Emotional testimony should not affect the jurors' decision, according to Arbuthnot, who oversaw a study of some 300 subjects who were shown a videotaped version of a murder trial. For the study, after viewing the videotape, some participants saw different versions of videotape. Some depicted no victim impact evidence, some modest harm, while the rest saw evidence of serious harm prior to being asked their recommndation for a penalty.

"It was found that jurors were indeed emotionally aroused by the testimony concerning harm," Arbuthnot said. "They did use the information in their sentencing decisions, but their level of arousal had no effect on their propensity to recommend a severe sentence, the death penalty."

The study concurred with a 1991 U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the court ruled emotional testimony during the penalty phase of a trial was permissible.

"The court ruled at that time that such evidence is permissible, and presumably does not result in undue bias," Arbuthnot said. "However, the court did not have the benefit of conclusive evidence from the social science community on this issue. Indeed, we found that people were emotionally aroused by the testimony, but the level of their emotional arousal made no difference in their sentencing decision."

Arbuthnot oversaw the study by Bryan Myers, a graduate student in psychology, who has since started teaching at Northern Iowa University.