How Jury Instructions Can Affect The Outcome Of Your Case
The best thing about jurors is how little they know; this is what makes them unbiased. The jury would not be able to return a fair verdict if all of the jurors were your former classmates who were still bearing a grudge about what a jerk you were when you were a teenager. How little jurors know is also the worst thing about them. You cannot expect them to have as much knowledge about the law or about branches of knowledge that relate to the evidence of your case. If only people who had worked in healthcare and therefore knew how to read lab test reports and could reasonably guess, from looking at an injury, what had caused it, were able to serve on juries in violent crime cases, juror selection would take forever. Therefore, the law includes safeguards to ensure that lawyers do not take advantage of jurors’ lack of opportunity to fact check outside the courtroom before returning a verdict. For example, judges decide before the trial begins which pieces of evidence are admissible at trial and which were obtained unfairly or are prejudicial. Jury instructions sound formulaic, but they are also held to the same standard of fairness as every other stage of the criminal process. A Tampa criminal defense lawyer can help you ensure that the jury instructions at your trial are fair.
It’s Only a Fair Trial If Your Lawyer Reads the Jury Instructions Carefully
Every criminal trial includes jury instructions, even though you rarely see them dramatized in movies or reported on in high profile news stories. The judge reads the jury instructions to the jury immediately before they go to the jury room to deliberate. This is because jury deliberations are confidential; the judge cannot interfere with the deliberations once they begin. Therefore, the purpose of the jury instructions is to ensure that the jurors understand their duties and the questions they must answer.
Florida law provides a set of standard guidelines for each criminal charge, that judges may use verbatim at each trial. Judges also have the right to add more clauses to the jury instructions if they think there is a risk of jurors misunderstanding a point relevant to the case. Prosecutors and defense lawyers have the right to review the jury instructions before the case begins and to suggest additional clauses for inclusion. Sometimes prosecutors and defense lawyers disagree strongly with each other about whether a certain proposed clause is necessary for a fair verdict, or whether the clause will mislead jurors or create prejudice, but the judge has the final decision about the wording of the jury instructions. Defendants have the right to appeal their convictions if they were convicted because of unfair jury instructions.
Contact Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Bryant Scriven
A criminal defense lawyer can help you present your case at a fair trial that includes fair jury instructions. Contact Scriven Law in Tampa, Florida to schedule a consultation.
Sources:
floridabar.org/rules/florida-standard-jury-instructions/criminal-jury-instructions-home/criminal-jury-instructions/sji-criminal-chapter-3/
law.cornell.edu/wex/jury_instructions
