MS · jury_instructions
Proposed Mississippi Plain Language Model Jury Instructions - Criminal 2711
Defendant is Under a Life Sentence
[Name of defendant] is charged in count ____ with capital murder.
If you find beyond a reasonable doubt from the evidence in this case that:
1. On or about [date of alleged crime], in ____________ County;
2A. [Name of defendant] unlawfully and with deliberate design killed [name of victim], a human
being, by ________________ [describe defendant’s alleged actions];
OR
2B. Although [name of defendant] did not have a premeditated design to kill [name of victim],
[name of defendant] unlawfully and with a depraved heart killed [name of victim], a human
being, by ___________________________ [describe defendant’s alleged actions]; and
3A. When [name of defendant] unlawfully and with deliberate design killed [name of victim],
[name of defendant] was [serving/under] a life sentence;
OR
3B. When [name of defendant] unlawfully and with a depraved heart killed [name of victim],
[name of defendant] was [serving/under] a life sentence, [and
4. [Name of defendant] was not acting in self-defense,]*
then you shall find [name of defendant] guilty as charged.
If the State did not prove any one of the above listed elements beyond a reasonable doubt,
then you shall find [name of defendant] not guilty of count _____.
Definition(s) in this Instruction:
In this instruction, “deliberate design” means a person decides to unlawfully kill another
person, and there is no legally justifiable or excusable reason for doing so. The decision to kill a
person can be formed very quickly and may occur only moments before the actual act of killing.
However, deliberate design cannot be formed at the exact moment of the act of killing.
In this instruction, “depraved heart” means a person acts in a highly dangerous way which
shows that [he/she] does not care for the safety of human life. Even if someone does not intend to
kill a particular person, [he/she] can still be guilty of murder if [he/she] acts with a depraved
heart, and a person is killed as a result.
History
Proposed Mississippi Plain Language Model Jury Instructions - Criminal 2711 (current as of June 30, 2012). Submitted in 2012 by the Mississippi Model Jury Instructions Commission (created by the Supreme Court of Mississippi by order of December 30, 2008) and published by the Court on courts.ms.gov. The Court states that these model jury instructions have not been adopted or approved by the Supreme Court of Mississippi.
Provenance
- Source
- courts.ms.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-25
- Edition
- 2026-09-25
- Content hash
4670e816b79aefcdd71f2bd1880d6bc73e0ccdbee0ecd3ae5b8f340df23a9a0d
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