Pennington and Hastie

• Procedure

  Evidence can be presented in different ways:

  • Witness order - where lawyers present witnesses in the sequence they believe is most likely to persuade jurors
  • Story order - this is where lawyers present evidence in chronological order
  • Carried out the question of what was more effective in a mock murder trial. They found side that used story order more convincing
• Results

  Defence story order + prosecution story order = guilty verdict of 59%

  Defence witness order + prosecution witness order = guilty verdict of 63%

  Defence story order + prosecution witness order = guilty verdict of 31%

  Defence witness order + prosecution story order = guilty verdict of 78%