Founder and Director
Barry C. Edwards, J.D., Ph.D., founded Fair Trial Analysis to bring rigorous empirical methods to one of the legal system’s hardest questions: whether trial errors and omissions actually mattered. His work combines legal training, quantitative social science, published scholarship, and applied experience in litigation-related settings.
Barry’s background combines law, political science, and quantitative research. He holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University, a J.D. from New York University School of Law, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Georgia, where his doctoral training focused on American politics and research methods.
Why His Background Matters
Fair Trial Analysis was built at the intersection of legal doctrine and empirical method. Barry’s academic and professional work reflects that combination.
His research has examined courts, redistricting, legislative behavior, presidential politics, and legal decision-making. His scholarship has appeared in journals including the Journal of Politics, Presidential Studies Quarterly, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, Election Law Journal, and Emory Law Journal Online.
He has also written and co-written widely used political science research-methods textbooks published by CQ Press/Sage, including The Essentials of Political Analysis, An IBM SPSS Companion to Political Analysis, An R Companion to Political Analysis, A Stata Companion to Political Analysis, and A Microsoft Excel Companion to Political Analysis.
Legal and Applied Experience
Barry’s work is not limited to academic theory. His background includes legal practice, dispute-resolution work, expert-witness service, and applied research on legal institutions and adjudication.
That combination of legal training and empirical research is central to Fair Trial Analysis. The organization is designed not just to publish ideas, but to apply them in ways that are concrete, disciplined, and useful to courts and counsel.
Selected Publications
Criminal trial fairness and appellate review
- A Scientific Framework for Analyzing the Harmfulness of Trial Errors (UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review, 2024)
- If the Jury Only Knew: The Effect of Omitted Mitigation Evidence on the Probability of a Death Sentence (Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law, Spring 2025)
- Measuring Fairness (Alabama Law Review)
Other legal scholarship
- Why Appeals Courts Rarely Reverse Lower Courts: An Experimental Study to Explore Affirmation Bias (Emory Law Journal Online, 2019)
- How to Transform the Judicial System: Lessons from the Institutionalization of Veterans’ Treatment Courts (NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, 2018/2019)
Political science scholarship
- Institutional Control of Redistricting and the Geography of Representation (Journal of Politics, 2017)
- Does the Presidency Moderate the President? (Presidential Studies Quarterly, 2017)
- Formal Authority, Persuasive Power, and Effectiveness in State Legislatures (State Politics & Policy Quarterly, 2018)
Teaching and Research
Barry served on the faculty of the University of Central Florida’s School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs, first as Lecturer and then as Associate Lecturer. His academic work has included teaching research methods, pre-law courses, and American politics.
That teaching background matters to Fair Trial Analysis for a simple reason: clear thinking, careful measurement, and transparent explanation are not side interests. They are part of the organization’s operating philosophy.
Founder’s Perspective
Fair Trial Analysis reflects Barry’s view that courts are often asked to answer empirical questions without empirical tools. His scholarship argues that fairness determinations are too important to rest on intuition alone when more disciplined analysis is possible. In his 2024 UCLA article, he explains that judges often cannot access direct evidence of a trial error’s effect, that estimates of harm can become speculative, and that scientific analysis can help courts evaluate harmfulness more accurately, efficiently, and confidently.
That perspective is the foundation of the organization.