Add Lines Legal Oklahoma Jury Instructions Forms For Free

For jury instructions to be effective, they must be clear and simple. Sentences should be short; instruc- ? tions should contain no more than a few sentences, cover only one topic, and be directly related to the circumstances of the case (they should not be abstract statements of the law).

About Court Rules and Jury Instructions They include required procedures for commencing actions, time limitations, rules for parties, motions, and trials, and other directives in civil and criminal actions and proceedings.

A party who objects to an instruction or the failure to give an instruction must do so on the record, stating distinctly the matter objected to and the grounds for the objection.

(1) Members of the jury, now it is time for me to instruct you about the law you must follow in deciding this case. (2) I will start by explaining your duties and the general rules that apply in every criminal case. (3) Then I will explain the elements of the crimes that the defendant is accused of committing.

The judge will instruct the jury in each separate case as to the law of that case. For example, in each criminal case, the judge will tell the jury, among other things, that a defendant charged with a crime is presumed to be innocent and the burden of proving his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is upon the Government.

The prohibition against jurors being provided with a copy of the written legal instructions stems from a 1987 decision by the New York Court of Appeals ? the state's highest court ? in a case called People v. Owens, which involved a drug sale.

Do work out differences between yourself and other jurors through complete and fair discussions of the evidence and of the judge's instructions. Don't lose your temper, try to bully, or refuse to listen to the opinions of other jurors. Don't mark or write on exhibits or otherwise change or injure them.

Jury instructions are given to the jury by the judge, who usually reads them aloud to the jury. The judge issues a judge's charge to inform the jury how to act in deciding a case. The jury instructions provide something of a flowchart on what verdict jurors should deliver based on what they determine to be true.

?Preponderance of the evidence? means evidence that has more convincing force than that opposed to it. If the evidence is so evenly balanced that you are unable to say that the evidence on either side of an issue preponderates, your finding on that issue must be against the party who had the burden of proving it.