5th Cir. Pattern Jury Instr. (Criminal) 1.01

Members of the Jury:

Now that you have been sworn, I will give you some preliminary instructions to guide you

in your participation in the trial.

Duty of the jury:

It will be your duty to find from the evidence what the facts are. You and you alone will

be the judges of the facts. You will then have to apply those facts to the law as the court will give

it to you. You must follow that law whether you agree with it or not. Perform these duties fairly.

Do not let any bias, sympathy, or prejudice that you may feel toward one side or the other influence

your decision in any way. In particular, do not let racial, ethnic, national origin, or other bias

influence your decision in any way.

Nothing the court may say or do during the course of the trial is intended to indicate, or

should be taken by you as indicating, what your verdict should be.

Evidence:

The evidence from which you will find the facts will consist of the testimony of witnesses,

documents, and other items received into the record as exhibits, and any facts that the lawyers

agree to or stipulate to or that the court may instruct you to find.

Certain things are not evidence and must not be considered by you. I will list them for you

now.

1. Statements, arguments, and questions by lawyers are not evidence.

2. Objections to questions are not evidence. Lawyers have an obligation to their clients

to make objections when they believe evidence being offered is improper under the rules of

evidence. You should not be influenced by the objection or by the court’s ruling on it. If the

objection is sustained, ignore the question. If it is overruled, treat the answer like any other. If you

are instructed that some item of evidence is received for a limited purpose only, you must follow

that instruction.

3. Testimony that the court has excluded or told you to disregard is not evidence and

must not be considered.

4. Anything you may have seen, heard, or read outside the courtroom is not evidence

and must be disregarded. You are to decide the case solely on the evidence presented here in the

courtroom.

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There are two kinds of evidence: direct and circumstantial. Direct evidence is direct proof

of a fact, such as testimony of an eyewitness. Circumstantial evidence is proof of facts from which

you may infer or conclude that other facts exist. I will give you further instructions on these as

well as other matters at the end of the case, but keep in mind that you may consider both kinds of

evidence.

It will be up to you to decide which witnesses to believe, which witnesses not to believe,

and how much of any witness’s testimony to accept or reject. I will give you some guidelines for

determining the credibility of witnesses at the end of the case.

Rules for criminal cases:

As you know, this is a criminal case. There are three basic rules about a criminal case that

you must keep in mind.

First: the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The indictment brought by

the government against the defendant is only an accusation, nothing more. It is not proof of guilt

or anything else. The defendant therefore starts out with a clean slate.

Second: the burden of proof is on the government until the very end of the case. The

defendant has no burden to prove his or her innocence, or to present any evidence, or to testify.

Since the defendant has the right to remain silent, the law prohibits you from arriving at your

verdict by considering that the defendant may not have testified.

Third: the government must prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. I will

give you further instructions on this point later but bear in mind that in this respect a criminal case

is different from a civil case.

Summary of applicable law:

In this case the defendant is charged with _____________ ( insert charge(s)). I will give

you detailed instructions on the law at the end of the case, and those instructions will control your

deliberations and decision. But in order to help you follow the evidence, I will now give you a

brief summary of the elements of the offense that the government must prove beyond a reasonable

doubt to make its case. (Summarize the elements of the offense.)

Conduct of the jury:

Now, a few words about your conduct as jurors.

During the course of the trial, do not speak with any witness, or with the defendant, or with

any of the lawyers in the case. Please do not talk with them about any subject at all. You may be

unaware of the identity of everyone connected with the case. Therefore, in order to avoid even the

appearance of impropriety, do not engage in any conversation with anyone in or about the

courtroom or courthouse. It is best that you remain in the jury room during breaks in the trial and

do not linger in the hall. In addition, during the course of the trial, do not talk about the trial with

anyone else—not your family, not your friends, not the people with whom you work. Also, do not

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discuss this case among yourselves until I have instructed you on the law and you have gone to the

jury room to make your decision at the end of the trial. Otherwise, without realizing it, you may

start forming opinions before the trial is over. It is important that you wait until all the evidence is

received and you have heard my instructions on rules of law before you deliberate among

yourselves.

You, as jurors, must decide this case based solely on the evidence presented here within

the four walls of this courtroom. This means that during the trial you must not conduct any

independent research about this case, the matters in this case, and the ind ividuals or corporations

involved in the case. In other words, you should not consult dictionaries or reference materials,

search the internet, websites, or blogs, or use any other electronic tools to obtain information about

this case or to help you decide the case. Please do not try to find out information from any source

outside the confines of this courtroom.

I know that many of you use cell phones, the i nternet, and other tools of technology. You

also must not talk to anyone at any time about this case or use these tools to communicate

electronically with anyone about the case. This includes your family and friends. You may not

communicate with anyone about the case through any means, including your cell phone, through

e-mail, iPhone, text messaging, or on Snapchat or Twitter, or through any blog or website,

including Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube. You may not use any

similar technology of social media, even if I have not specifically mentioned it here. I expect you

will inform me as soon as you become aware of another juror’s violation of these instructions. A

juror who violates th ese restrictions jeopardizes the fairness of these proceedings, and a mistrial

could result, which would require the entire trial process to start over.

Course of the trial:

I will now give you a roadmap to help you follow what will happen over the entire course

of this trial. First, the government will make an opening statement, which is simply an outline to

help you understand the evidence as it is admitted. Next, the defendant’s attorney may, but does

not have to, make an opening statement. Opening statements are neither evidence nor arguments.

The government will then present its witnesses, and counsel for the defendant may cross -

examine them. Following the government’s case, the defendant may, if he [she] wishes, present

witnesses whom the government may cross-examine. If the defendant decides to present evidence,

the government may introduce rebuttal evidence.

After all the evidence is in, the attorneys will present their closing arguments to summarize

and interpret the evidence for you, and the court will instruct you on the law. After that, you will

retire to deliberate on your verdict.

The trial will now begin.

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