CT · jury_instructions
Conn. Crim. Jury Instr. 1.1-4
The Voir Dire Process
In a moment I will excuse you from the courtroom. Then each of you will be invited back into
the courtroom, one by one; you will be seated in the witness box and each of the lawyers will ask
you questions. If you understand the question, please answer it. If you do not understand the
question, just say so and the lawyer will restate it for you. Remember, please, there are no right
or wrong answers to these questions. In response to each question simply give your honest
response; that is all that is needed. The purpose of this questioning process is to permit the
lawyers and their clients to decide if they wish you to be a juror in this particular case.
Before I excuse you, the attorneys will introduce themselves and each of them will make brief
comments to you. They will read to you a list of names of people who are in some way
connected to this case, or who may come before the court as witnesses. Listen carefully to the
list to see if you know any of them. If you do, do not talk to others about it, but let me know
when you come back on your own.
Jurors must be fair and impartial. If you think that you cannot be fair and impartial in this
particular case for some reason, please do not tell us now, and do not share it with the other
members of the panel while you are waiting to go through the questioning procedure, but do
share it with us when you are brought back into this courtroom.
While you are under consideration as a juror in this case, do not discuss the case or reasons why
you cannot serve with the others on the voir dire panel. There will be (six / twelve) jurors and
two alternate jurors selected for this case.
1 “A trial court may pose questions to entire venire panels prior to individual voir dire . . . and
may dismiss for cause any panel member whose answers to the court’s inquiries reveal bias.”
State v. Faust, 237 Conn. 454, 462 (1996). The individual panel members should not be
questioned further in the presence of the panel. “A prospective juror’s biased opinions or
attitudes, expressed through answers to specific questions in the presence of other members of
the venire panel, may taint the impartiality of the other members.” Id., 463.
Provenance
- Source
- jud.ct.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-08-23
- Edition
- 2026-08-23
- Content hash
2ba79c8faae078e2bd75e3f3add8013fce7c0c7471d0e123fe857189f16eab88
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