Respective Duties of Judge and Jury - National Judicial Institute

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Note: Specimen jury instructions serve as a template that trial judges must adapt to the particular circumstances of each trial, not simply read out in whole. They are not designed to be delivered "as-is." More information about the use of specimen instructions is found in the Preface and A Note to Users, which you can find here.

8.2 Respective Duties of Judge and Jury

(Last revised June 2012)

[1] In this trial, I am the judge of the law. You are the judges of the facts.

[2] As judge of the law, it is my duty to preside over the trial. I am the sole judge of the law, and it is your duty to accept the law as I explain it to you. If I am wrong about the law, my error can be corrected by the court of appeal, because my instructions are recorded and will be available if there is an appeal. However, your deliberations are secret. If you wrongly apply the law there will be no record of your discussions for the court of appeal to review. Therefore, it is important that you accept the law from me without question; you must not use your own ideas about what the law is or should be.

[3] It is your duty to decide whether the Crown has proved (NOA)’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. It is not my role to express any view on the guilt or innocence of (NOA). If I do so inadvertently, you must ignore it.

[4] You have now heard all the evidence that will be called in this case. There will be no more evidence. You must make your decision based on all the evidence presented to you in the courtroom and only on that evidence. I might comment on or express an opinion about the evidence. If I do that, you do not have to agree with me.