US-CA6 · jury_instructions
6th Cir. Pattern Crim. Jury Instr. 2.11
JOINT POSSESSION
(1) One more thing about possession. The government does not have to prove that the defendant was the only one who had possession of the _______. Two or more people can together share actual or constructive possession over property. And if they do, both are considered to have possession as far as the law is concerned.
(2) But remember that just being present with others who had possession is not enough to convict. The government must prove that the defendant had either actual or constructive possession of the _______, and knew that he did, for you to find him guilty of this crime. This, again, is all for you to decide.
Use Note
This instruction should be used only when there is some evidence of joint possession.
Provenance
- Source
- ca6.uscourts.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-08-19
- Edition
- 2026-08-19
- Content hash
8fc896cb7376d51b8701ed47d1ca5bc12f468a1dfd7b9f05aed97ae6b9d57cbc
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.