|
2.9-3 Process for Jury's Deliberations
Revised to January 1, 2008
At this time, ladies and gentlemen, I
will explain the verdict form[s] to you and then you will be escorted to the
jury deliberation room. You should not begin your deliberations until the
exhibits and the verdict form[s] are delivered to you by the clerk. This will
occur after the lawyers have had an opportunity to check that all the exhibits
are present and to tell me if they think that any different or additional
instructions to you are necessary. I will recall you to the courtroom if I
conclude that further instructions are needed.
When the exhibits are delivered to
you, your first task will be to elect a foreperson who will serve as your
clerk. After you have received the exhibits and then elected the foreperson,
you will begin deliberating. If you have questions during your deliberations,
the foreperson should write the jury's question on a sheet of paper, sign and
date it, and knock on the door. The marshal will then bring the question to me,
and I will respond in open court. It may take a few minutes to assemble the
staff before you are brought to the courtroom to hear the response. Please try
to make any questions very precise. We cannot engage in an informal dialogue,
and I will respond only to the question on the paper.
If you need to have any testimony or
any part of my instructions (played / read back), follow the same procedure: on
a sheet of paper specify what it is that you want to hear as precisely as you
can. For example, if you know that you want to hear only the direct examination
or only the cross examination of a particular witness, specify that. Otherwise,
we will have to repeat the whole testimony.
We will now go over the verdict form[s].
<Pass out verdict forms to each juror and explain the circumstances for the
use of each form.>
Your verdict must be unanimous. There
is no such thing as a majority vote of a jury in Connecticut. Rather, you must
all agree on the verdict.
No one will hurry you. If you are not
able to reach a verdict today, you will resume your deliberations tomorrow. You
may have as much time as you need to reach a verdict.
Marshal, please escort the jury to the
jury deliberation room.
Notes
|
