IL · jury_instructions
Ill. Pattern Jury Instr. (Criminal) 29.03
Arguments Of Counsel
Opening statements are made by the attorneys to acquaint you with the facts they expect to
prove. Closing arguments are made by the attorneys to discuss the facts and circumstances in the
case and should be confined to the evidence and to reasonable inferences to be drawn from the
evidence. Neither opening statements nor closing arguments are evidence, and any statement or
argument made by the attorneys which is not based on the evidence should be disregarded.
[While the State in a fitness jury trial has the burden of proving the fitness of the
defendant to stand trial by a preponderance of the evidence, the law allows the State to take the
position in closing argument that the State has not carried its burden of proof by preponderance
of the evidence and the defendant is unfit.]
[The attorney for the defendant in a fitness trial is allowed by law to take the position over
the objection of the defendant in closing argument that the State by the preponderance of the
evidence has carried its burden of proof and the defendant is unfit to stand trial.]
Provenance
- Source
- illinoiscourts.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-08-20
- Edition
- 2026-08-19
- Content hash
5611ab3d9be7b766bb7f0b4d7a664ad648a18137a7ae733aba8c21c43b61f762
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.