A randomized controlled experiment is a study in which participants are randomly assigned to one of two or more conditions. One group (the treatment group) experiences the condition of interest—for example, a new policy, medication, or procedural change. The other group (the control group) does not. Because the assignment is random, the two groups are…
In science, medicine, and law, a basic principle holds true: a good test doesn’t always say “yes.” For a test to be useful, it must sometimes confirm a claim and sometimes reject it. A thermometer that always reads 98.6°F isn’t telling you who has a fever. A smoke detector that always goes off isn’t telling…
Everyone deserves a fair trial. It’s a bedrock promise of the legal system—but one that’s often broken. Defendants raise constitutional violations all the time: unfair juries, withheld evidence, incompetent lawyers. But raising the issue isn’t enough. To prevail, one must prove whether those errors mattered—that there’s a reasonable probability the outcome would have been different…
Version 3.1.0 of sate, the software package for analyzing jury trials, is now available on CRAN. The package allows users to perform analysis with R, a free, open-source application for data analysis and graphing. Version 3.1.0 is a major update for faster, more precise solutions. It also features exciting new tools for analyzing trials with…