SAMPLE INSTRUCTION:

    If you find a defendant guilty of [any of] the crime[s] charged in this indictment, I am required by law to sentence the defendant to prison.

    The Congress of the United States has enacted laws which give a federal judge only a limited discretion in determining what sentence should be imposed. In this case the Court would not have the discretion to place the defendant upon probation.

AUTHORITIES:

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION:

    You are instructed that only the prosecution can ask this Court to sentence a defendant to a sentence below a mandatory minimum and below the sentencing guidelines for the offense for which that defendant was convicted on the basis of that defendant giving substantial assistance to the prosecution.

AUTHORITY:

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION:

AUTHORITY:

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION:

    Now ladies and gentlemen of the jury, our next set of instructions deals with your deliberations. If any reference by the court or by counsel to matters of evidence does not coincide with your own recollection, it is your recollection which should control during your deliberations, and you have the right to request portions of the record to be reread to you or these instructions to be reread to you. And you are instructed that if the evidence which you have heard is susceptible of two constructions, each of which appears to be reasonable, and only one of which points to the guilt of a defendant, then it becomes your duty to adopt the interpretation which will admit the defendant's innocence and reject that which points to guilt.

CASES WHERE THE ABOVE INSTRUCTION WAS GIVEN:

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION:

    I am going to reread to you an instruction I have already given and one which already appears in the written instructions which you have had with you in the jury room. This instruction is no more important than any of the other instructions I have given and you should not interpret my rereading of this instruction as an attempt on my part to influence either the nature or the outcome of your deliberations.

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION:

    You perform your duty as jurors as well by the return of a not guilty verdict as by the return of a guilty verdict. The State cannot lose, whichever verdict you return, provided your verdict be an honest verdict, based upon the evidence you have heard or the absence of evidence, and guided by my instructions to you.

CASES WHERE THE ABOVE INSTRUCTION WAS GIVEN:

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION # 1:

    The question before you can never be: Will the [state] [government] [prosecution] win or lose the case? The [prosecution] [government] always wins when justice is done regardless of whether the verdict be guilty or not guilty.

AUTHORITIES:

CASES WHERE THE ABOVE INSTRUCTION WAS GIVEN:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION # 2:

    Keep constantly in mind that it would be a violation of your sworn duty to base a verdict upon anything but tie evidence in this case.

    Remember also, that the question before you can never be: Will the [state] [government] win or lose the case? The government always wins when justice is done, regardless of whether the verdict be guilty or not guilty.

CASES WHERE THE ABOVE INSTRUCTION WAS GIVEN:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION # 3:

The government of the United States does not ask you to sacrifice anybody to prove its might. It asks you to do justice.

AUTHORITIES:

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION # 1:

AUTHORITY:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION # 2:

Although it is your duty to find the facts in this case, follow my instructions and return your verdict in accordance with these, you have the power "to bring in a verdict in the teeth of both law and facts."

AUTHORITIES:

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION:

    You are the judges of the facts in this case and that is a sufficiently burdensome duty. That is to say, it is you, not the Judge and not the lawyers, who are to make up your mind as to what was the evidence, how much of it was credible, that is to say believable, and it is up to you to determine ultimate questions and preliminary questions of fact.

AUTHORITIES:

CASES WHERE THE ABOVE INSTRUCTION WAS GIVEN:

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION # 1:

Members of the Jury:

    It is now my duty to instruct you as to the law applicable to this case. It is your duty to accept the law as given to you by the Court regardless of what you may personally believe the law is or ought to be. You are not to single out any one instruction as stating the law but are to consider the instructions as a whole.

    It is your duty to determine the facts in this case from the evidence produced in court. The evidence you are to consider consists of the testimony of the witnesses and the exhibits offered and received, and stipulated to by the parties. Additionally, you are permitted to draw, from facts which you find have been proved, such reasonable inferences as you feel are justified in the light of experience. You will disregard any evidence which either was not admitted or which was stricken by the Court.

    Statements by counsel in arguments are intended to help you understand the evidence and apply the law. They are not evidence, however, and you should disregard any statement which is not supported by the evidence or the law as given to you by the Court.

CASES WHERE THE ABOVE INSTRUCTION WAS GIVEN:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION # 2:

    Disregard entirely any question that the court did not allow to be answered. Do not guess what the witness' answer to such question might have been. If the question implied that certain facts were true, disregard any such implication, and draw no inference from the question.

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION:

Members of the jury:

    The court will now instruct you upon the principles of law which you are to follow in considering the evidence and in reaching your verdict.

    In applying these instructions, keep in mind the following:

    First, you should consider all instructions.

    Second, you should consider the instructions as a whole and apply them to the evidence.

    Third, the fact that the instructions are given in a particular order does not mean one is more important than the other.

    Take the law as it is given in the judge's instructions and apply that law to the facts in the case which are properly proven by the evidence. Consider only the evidence received during this trial and the law as given to you by these instructions and from these alone, guided by your soundest reason and best judgment, reach your verdict.

    If any member of the jury has an impression of my opinion as to whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty, disregard such impression entirely and decide the issues of fact solely as you view the evidence. You, the jury, are the sole judges of the facts, and the court is the judge of the law only.

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION:

    As the Judge, I give you instructions with respect to the law. A Judge may make mistakes as to the law. But if a Judge makes a mistake as to the law, those who believe he has made a mistake among the counsel before you have a right to call it to his attention, and if the Judge doesn't correct the mistake, they have a right of appeal to the Court of Appeals, and in an appropriate case ultimately to the Supreme Court of the [State of _________] [United States]. You, however, are not to correct any error I make with regard to the law.

    The law assumes that you are at least as likely to be mistaken with respect to any attempted correction of law as you are likely to be right and, moreover, we could not tell if you were making an error of law because you would not be making it on the record the way I am at every moment.

AUTHORITIES:

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS:

SAMPLE INSTRUCTION:

    The Court has permitted the jury to take notes. Whenever a jury is allowed to take notes several concerns arise. The first and most important of these is how a juror should use such notes. Notes taken by a juror are for the use of that juror only and should not be shown to other jurors. Notes are not evidence. Notes are to help the juror who took them to remember the evidence.

    Second, a juror should not read aloud the notes which he or she has taken in order to convince other jurors of the evidence heard by that juror.

    Last, all jurors should be reminded that no greater reliance should be placed upon the memory of a juror who has taken notes than upon the memories of jurors who did not take notes.

RELATED SHELLOW MATERIALS:

RELATED NCJIC MATERIALS: