8.Final Jury Instructions — Deliberation Procedures

THE COURT: I have a few final comments.

How you arrange your deliberations is really up to you, but one of the things I suggest you do first is to select one of your members to be the foreman of the jury. That person will have the responsibility to, among other things, organize things, but also to communicate with us when you have reached a verdict.

You will have, as I said this morning, a written copy of the instructions with you in the jury room to consult as you feel necessary during the deliberations to help guide you as to what the legal principles are. But if you have any questions about my instructions to you about the law that you're unable to answer after looking at and reviewing those instructions, then you may send us a note and ask us that question. We'd rather have you ask a question about a point of law and get a correct answer than for you to guess or to be unsure about what principles of law you should apply.

We cannot, however, answer any questions about the facts of the case or the meaning of the evidence. Those matters are entirely and exclusively matters for you, the jury, to determine.

I note for the record that as you know you will not have your cell phones or electronic devices with you during the deliberations. They are collected and they'll be returned at the end of the day for you. And of course overnight it will be improper for you to use any of those to communicate with each other or anybody else about the case, about the issues in the case and, of course, to use them -- as we've been talking throughout, to use them to conduct any research online or otherwise.

By law, a deliberating jury will consist of 12 jurors. Typically in longer trials such as this one, we empanel a larger number than 12 to be sure that because of illness or other reasons we don't lose jurors, so that we might end up with fewer than 12 to deliberate at the end of the case. So we must now separate from the 18 of you six who will be the alternate jurors and the other 12 will deliberate.

So I will now reduce the jury from 18 to 12 by separating by identification of those who have been selected by the method that's applicable to these matters to be determined to be alternate jurors.

You'll separate physically once you leave the room.

Those jurors -- those alternate jurors are still important to the case because they will be available in case something happens during deliberations to one of the deliberating jurors and it's necessary to make a substitution. In addition, the alternates will also participate in the -- any second phase of the trial, if there is one, again, for the same purpose of being available for service, if necessary.

The six alternate jurors by juror number are Juror No. 552, Juror No. 567, Juror No. 588, Juror No. 598, Juror No. 608 and Juror No. 638. The other jurors whose numbers I've not read will be the deliberating jury.

For those, you will all have the notes you've taken during the deliberations. Please be respectful of each other's note-taking abilities and memories. Perhaps you might remember from your school experiences that not everything you write down is necessarily completely accurate as to what was said. So when you are in the room to discuss the case, do not assume that simply because something appears in somebody's notes that it necessarily must have been said or presented exactly that way in court. It's an aid to discussion, but principally use your recollections. It's your collective memory that must control as you deliberate on the verdict.

Deliberate with a mind towards hearing each other out, considering the evidence seriously as a group, and if you can, coming to an agreement.

Each juror is entitled to his or her own opinion and each should render, in the end, a verdict which represents that juror's own conscientious view of the evidence. However, that doesn't mean you don't listen to each other as you deliberate, present your views, consult with one another, and see whether you can, without violence to your individual conscientious judgment, come to a unanimous resolution of the issues presented.

With that, jurors, we ask you now to withdraw to deliberate upon the evidence and to return with your verdict. We will have you get organized for a few minutes. We won't go too long today. It's been a long day. And we will -- as a matter of fact, I think maybe we won't do anything. We'll get you organized in the back, separate the alternates, and very shortly after that -- I think it's been long enough -- we'll send you home. Turn the switch off. What we'll do in the morning is when everybody's here at nine o'clock, we'll call you into the room to record formally for the record that you have returned and will begin deliberations in the case, and then you'll immediately go -- that will take two or three minutes to do, and then you'll begin your deliberations tomorrow morning, okay?

So save it until then. Think of other things tonight. There's a basketball game on you could probably watch. And we'll get to work in the morning, all right?

So if all the jurors would exit, and we'll separate the alternates from the jurors.