Form 7 pupil Hannah is studying Psychology and intends to read Law at university. In this blog, she asks ‘why did it take so long to convict Lucy Letby?’
“Human beings are poor examiners, subject to superstition, bias, prejudice, and a profound tendency to see what they want to see rather than what is really there”, stated the American Psychiatrist Scott Peck (1978).
Human beings are subject to unconscious or implicit bias, prevalent through all walks of life. It is implanted in our brain long before we can even begin to understand our own judgements which are influenced by our personal schema, childhood experiences and environmental factors.
Despite our ability to become culturally congruent, unconscious bias is a powerful driving force in decision making and our discernment, but one must often need to become accustomed with putting this judgement away.
When thought how this may have detrimental influence, the courtroom and role of a Judge themselves can be deliberated. Judges, as humans, harbour the same biases as others, ultimately giving significant influence on decision making in two ways.
The first being a social bias involving certain discrimination against a person, group, or set of beliefs. This stereotype can be the most damaging, as a judge can use quick, irrational thinking to make a conclusion without being aware, often known as system 1 thinking (Tversky and Kahneman, 1974).
The second is a cognitive bias which involves a systematic error when one is interpreting information. For example, confirmation bias, is when a judge seeks evidence to confirm their own prior beliefs about the case and anchoring bias, is where future decisions are influenced by the first piece of information presented to them. This explains why defence and prosecution lawyers are charismatic and adept at setting the scene in the courtroom, to present information that could influence the judge and jury.
One would assume that judges are trained to avoid these biases, however research conducted by Englich and Mussweiler (2001) revealed that young judges who were given a recommended sentence of 2 months gave a conviction of 19 months, whereas judges who were given a recommended sentence of 34 months, gave a conviction of 29 months, demonstrating the effect of anchoring bias.
These biases continue to be unintentional, despite the best efforts of those attempting to minimise this in the courtroom.
Additionally, case studies exemplify that white jurors are more likely to see black defendants as ‘cold-hearted, remorseless, and dangerous’ (Lynch & Haney, 2011). In 1976, an Afro-Caribbean offender Johnny Gates was charged with the robbery, rape and murder of a white woman. The all-white jury carrying his case deliberated for less than two hours before concluding a guilty verdict, as well as taking less than an hour to introduce the death penalty onto his case.
However, in 2018, DNA proved that Gates was not guilty of the murder. His sentence was overturned, and he was released in 2020 after spending 43 years in prison, and 26 years on death row. If the conscious or unconscious racial bias of the jurors was not so prevalent in his case, then Mr Gates’ verdict wouldn’t have been so callous.
In modern society, the case of Lucy Letby has shaken the nation. The 33-year-old nurse who was sentenced to life in prison in August 2023 without parole, due to murdering at least seven infants and the attempted murder of a further six.
Letby carried out her heinous crimes between June 2015 and June 2016 out of her five-year career- yet it took a further seven years for her offences to be uncovered and her to be charged. Unlike the deliberated two hours in Gates’ case, Letby’s deliberations lasted more than 110 hours, during a 10-month trial at Manchester crown court which was only scheduled to be two months. This suggests an unconscious bias from the jury, judge and public.
One explanation could be used is another cognitive bias called the halo effect. This suggests that individuals’ perceptions and judgements of others are heavily influenced by their physical features, background or characteristics.
As Letby was educated, and in a respected profession, it’s difficult to assume she would abuse her power, and thus positive traits are associated and negative are difficult to associate.
Other examples of the halo effect include Ted Bundy or Harold Shipman, who were equally questioned regarding their crimes as they were both well-educated and respected members of their community.
Evidence of the halo effect in Letby’s situation comes from a ‘GMB’ host who was recently criticised for claiming that Letby didn’t seem like a ‘typical murderer’ (McIntrye, 2023) and the Guardian (Halliday, 2023) newspaper described her as being ‘beige’ and an ‘average looking’ nurse and Sky News (Peplow, 2023) stated that she looks “about as far-removed as you could get from the image of a serial killer that would spring to mind for most”.
This unconscious bias could suggest why her trial extended 10 months. This leads us to question our personal and societal schema of serial killers, and encourages us to modify our existing ideas, but also leads us to question if the jury would have been more lenient if Letby had experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences?
References
Englich & Mussweiler (2001) Sentencing Under Uncertainty: Anchoring Effects in the Courtroom. Journal of Applied Social Psychology
Halliday, J (2023) Lucy Letby, the ‘beige’ and ‘average’ nurse who turned into a baby killer. The Guardian. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/18/lucy-letby-the-beige-and-average-nurse-who-turned-into-a-baby-killer
Houses of Parliament (2015) Unintentional Bias in Court [report] Available at: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/POST-PN-0512/POST-PN-0512.pdf
Lynch M, & Haney, C. (2011) Mapping the Racial Bias of the White Male Capital Juror: Jury Composition and the Empathetic Divide. Law & Society Review. Vol 45(1). Pp 91-92.
McIntyre, C. (2023) Good Morning Britain viewers criticise ‘insensitive’ coverage of Lucy Letby sentencing. The Mirror [online]. Available at: https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/good-morning-britain-viewers-criticise-30757381?scrlybrkr=1d578e27
Peplow, G (2023) Lucy Letby: Inside the mind of a serial killer – the psychology behind healthcare murderers. Sky News [online]. Available at: https://news.sky.com/story/lucy-letby-inside-the-mind-of-a-serial-killer-the-psychology-behind-healthcare-murderers-12941902#:~:text=In%20pictures%20taken%20at%20work,spring%20to%20mind%20for%20most
Tversky & Kahneman (1974) Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases: Biases in judgments reveal some heuristics of thinking under uncertainty. Science: Vol 185(4157) pp. 1124-1131
