1.01A. Cautionary Instructions (Prior To Opening)

1.01 Preliminary Cautionary Instructions [1] Now that the evidence has concluded, I will instruct you as to the law and your duties. [2] The law regarding this case is contained in the instructions I will give to you. You must consider the Court's instructions as a whole, not picking out some instructions and disregarding others. [3] It is your duty to resolve this case by determining the facts based on the evidence and following the law given in the instructions. Your verdict must not be based upon speculation, prejudice, or sympathy. [Each party, whether a [i.e., corporation, partnership, etc.] or an individual, should receive your same fair consideration.] My rulings, remarks or instructions do not indicate any opinion as to the facts. [4] You will decide what facts have been proven. Facts may be proven by evidence or reasonable inferences drawn from the evidence. Evidence consists of the testimony of witnesses and of exhibits admitted by the court. You should consider all the evidence without regard to which party produced it. You may use common sense gained from your experiences in life in evaluating what you see and hear during trial. [5] You are the only judges of the credibility of the witnesses. You will decide the weight to be given to the testimony of each of them. In evaluating the credibility of a witness, you may consider that witness' ability and opportunity to observe, memory, manner, interest, bias, qualifications, experience, and any previous inconsistent statement or act by the witness concerning an issue important to the case. [6] You should not do any independent investigation or research on any subject relating to the case. What you may have seen or heard outside the courtroom is not evidence. This includes any press, radio, or television programs and it also includes any information available on the Internet. Such programs, reports, and information are not evidence and your verdict must not be influenced in any way by such material. [7] For example, you must not use the Internet, [including [Google,] [Wikipedia,] [(insert current examples)]], or any other sources that you might use every day, to search for any information about the case, or the law which applies to the case, or the people involved in the case, including the parties, witnesses, lawyers, and judge. [8] During the course of the trial, do not discuss this case with anyone--not even your own families or friends, and also not even among yourselves--until at the end of the trial when you have retired to the jury room to deliberate on your verdict. Even though this is hard to do, it will be a violation of these instructions and your oath if you discuss the case with anyone else. [9] You must not provide any information about the case to anyone by any means at all, and this includes posting information about the case, or your thoughts about it, on any device or Internet site, including [blogs,] [chat-rooms,] or [[(insert current examples)]], or any social-networking websites, such as [Twitter], [Facebook] or [[(insert current examples)]], or any other means. [10] You cannot use any electronic devices or services to communicate about this case, and this includes [cell-phones,] [smart-phones,] [lap-tops,] [the Internet,] [[(insert current examples)]] and any other tools of technology. The use of any such devices or services in connection with your duties is prohibited. [11] The reason for these instructions is that your verdict must be based only on the evidence presented in this courtroom and the law I [will provide] [have provided] to you in my instructions. It would be unfair to the parties and a violation of your oath to base your decision on information from outside this courtroom. You should feel free to remind each other that your verdict is to be based only on the evidence admitted in court and that you cannot use information from any other sources. If you become aware of any violation of these instructions, it is your legal duty to report this to me immediately. [12] Disobeying these instructions could cause a mistrial, meaning all of our efforts have been wasted and we would have to start over again with a new trial. If you violate these instructions you could be found in contempt of court. [13] Pay close attention to the testimony as it is given. At the end of the trial you must make your decision based on what you recall of the evidence. You will not receive a written transcript of the testimony when you retire to the jury room. [14] An opening statement is what an attorney expects the evidence will be. A closing argument is given at the conclusion of the case and is a summary of what an attorney contends the evidence has shown. If any statement or argument of an attorney is not supported by the law or the evidence, you should disregard that statement or argument. [15] During this trial, you may be permitted to ask questions of [certain] witnesses, but you must follow the procedures that I describe: If you have a question for a witness and you believe the answer would be helpful to you in understanding the case, then after the lawyers have completed their questions, but before that witness is excused, I will give you a chance to submit your question in writing. I will have you write your question on a piece of paper and hand it to the bailiff. [The court may now describe specific procedures to be used. See Comment for examples.] You should not write your name or juror number with the question. Also, you should not discuss your questions with your fellow jurors at this time. You may submit one or more questions or no question at all. It is up to you. Please keep in mind, though, that you should only ask a question if you think it is important to your ability to decide the issues in this case fairly. You should be sure you are asking a question and not making a comment. You should not use your questions to argue with a witness or to express opinions about a witness's testimony. Your role is to be an impartial fact-finder. The purpose of your question should be to clarify testimony that you have not understood or that has failed to address a factual question that you believe is important. After the bailiff has collected the pieces of paper and given them to me, I will decide whether the law allows the question to be asked of the witness. Not all questions can be asked or asked using the wording that was submitted. The rules of evidence might not permit me to ask your question. You shall n