Data Collection Data used in this project was collected from the 7th Illinois Circuit Court in Springfield, Illinois. The information resides partially in hard copy format and computerized database. Only the information directly used for this ANN was gathered and processed. Computer operators at the Sangamon County Courthouse printed a list of criminal felony cases tried within the past two years. Twenty-one criminal felony cases that went to trial with a verdict were selected from this list.
Criminal felony includes such cases as aggravated sexual assault, battery, etc.
Once this list was obtained, each hard copy file of each selected trial was obtained from records. The trial citation as well as the verdict was recorded and then each juror's demographic information was extracted from the computerized database and matched up with the trial. Juror information was originally obtained from a pre-trial administered questionnaire that included all of the inputs used in this ANN plus questions regarding name, address, county residence, ages of juror's children, hearing, sight, health, and US citizenship which was then entered into a computerized database for jury list management. These questions serve primarily to determine if the juror is able to successfully complete jury duty and were not deemed necessary and effective inputs for this project. A general rule for the number of training facts is that they should equal the product of the number of hidden neurons and the inverse of the training tolerance.