Duties of Jurors - National Judicial Institute

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.

3.2 Duties of Jurors

(Last revised March 2011)

[1] You are the sole judges of the facts. You must decide this case only on the evidence presented to you in this courtroom.

[2] I am the sole judge of the law, and it is your duty to accept the law as I explain it to you. You must not use your own ideas about what the law is or should be, and you must not rely on information about the law from any other source.