These were people qualified to serve as jurors who had been summoned for jury duty at the courthouse that day. Half watched the black defendant version, and half watched the white defendant version. After statistical analyses of jurors opinions, the findings surprised the researchers. Also, prosecution witnesses were more credible when they testified against the white defendant, and the alibi witness was less credible when he testified for the white defendant. Jurors, regardless of their own race, acted essentially the same, researchers found.
Whites didn t stick up for whites, and blacks didn t stick up for blacks.
For a second round of showings, the team replaced a white female prosecution witness with a black woman and the white male alibi witness with a black man. Whereas the first time around, the white guy was convicted significantly more often, now there was no difference in conviction rates. Each defendant was found guilty about 50 percent of the time. Jurors, both black and white, acted like they thought this guy was being ganged up on and believed there was something wrong with that. When we injected racial balance into the courtroom by having a black prosecution witness, that concern seemed to evaporate.