INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING JUROR RESEARCH
FIRST RECESS
(This instruction should be given just before the first break during
jury selection and repeated for each new panel before their first break)
No one is permitted to talk to you
about this case outside the courtroom. If
you should see any of the attorneys or parties and they do not greet you, do
not be offended or think that they are being rude. They are not permitted to talk to you. If anyone approaches you and tries to talk
about this case report that to me or my staff immediately without discussing it
with your fellow jurors. Do NOT discuss
anything about this case with your fellow jurors until I instruct you to do so
at the end of the case after you have heard all of the evidence produced in
this courtroom, heard the summations of the lawyers, heard my instructions to
you about the law. Once I instruct you
to begin your deliberations in the privacy of the jury room that will be the
first time you can discuss this case. You may NOT have any discussions with
anyone before then about this case.
During this or any other recess, or
when you go home at the end of the day, I instruct you NOT to discuss this case
with anyone such as your fellow jurors, friends, co-workers or family
members. Do NOT text them, phone them,
e-mail them, tweet them about this case by any means either in person or by any
electronic means. Every conversation
about a jury trial begins with just a single sentence no matter how
innocent. If you start talking about
this trial with someone else, that person will say something that might affect
your thinking about the facts of this case.
That would obviously be unfair to both parties in this case because what
some other person says outside this courtroom is NOT evidence in this case.
I instruct you not to read or have
anyone read to you any newspaper accounts or search the internet for any media
accounts about this trial or read or have anyone read to you or search the Internet
for blogs, tweets or Facebook pages about any persons, topics or places related
to this case. I also instruct you not to
visit the scene(s) of the incident(s) or try to view (it/them) on the Internet
through Mapquest or Google Earth type sites.
Do not do any legal or factual research about anyone or any topic
connected to this case. You are NOT here
as investigators.
If you are sworn as jurors in this
case, you will become the sole judges of the facts, so you must remain
impartial throughout the trial. You must
decide the facts of this case solely from the evidence produced in this
courtroom and NOTHING ELSE. It would be
unfair and a violation of your oath as jurors to base your decision about the
facts of this case upon something that was said to you or discovered by you
outside this courtroom.
