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No copyright is claimed to the text of the jury instructions, bench notes, authority, other Task Force and Advisory Committee commentary, or references to secondary sources. CITE THIS BOOK: Judicial Council of California Criminal Jury Instructions (2024 edition) Cite these instructions: “CALCRIM No. _______.”

(B) "Special jury instructions," meaning instructions from other sources, those specially prepared by the party, or approved instructions that have been substantially modified by the party.

Potential jurors will be questioned as to experience, general feelings and fixed opinions, if any, about the case. You will not be asked about the law because you are not expected to know the law. The trial judge may conduct part of this questioning and the attorneys may participate. This process is called voir dire.

The standard of proof in a criminal trial gives the prosecutor a much greater burden than the plaintiff in a civil trial. The defendant must be found guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt,” which means the evidence must be so strong that there is no reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime.

A party must persuade you, by the evidence presented in court, that what he or she is required to prove is more likely to be true than not true. This is referred to as "the burden of proof."

The burden is always upon the prosecution to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. This burden never shifts to a defendant for the law never imposes upon a defendant in a criminal case the burden or duty of calling any witnesses or producing any evidence.

CALCRIM number 224 states that, “before your may rely on circumstantial evidence to find the defendant guilty, you must be convinced that the only reasonable conclusion supported by the evidence is that defendant is guilty.

When a party has the burden of proving any claim or affirmative defense by a preponderance of the evidence, it means you must be persuaded by the evidence that the claim or affirmative defense is more probably true than not true.

In a criminal case, the burden of proof must be beyond a reasonable doubt. In civil cases, the burden of proof is by a preponderance of the evidence. The judge will explain what these terms mean for a given case in the jury instructions.