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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev— Case Archive
2015 Federal TrialtranscripttranscriptCurative Instruction — Disregard Punishment Costs - Day 60 - 2015 Federal TrialJudge O'Toole instructed jurors to disregard punishment costs, then the court recessed.
George A. O'Toole Jr.THE COURTCourt Clerkjury_instructions
2015 Federal Trial/Day 60/May 7, 2015
5 pages·1 witness·1,219 lines
Mark Bezy completed testimony on ADX confinement and SAMs, including limits on his experience and qualifications to his placement opinions. The Court denied a mistrial, told jurors to disregard punishment costs, excluded proposed remorse documents while deferring a decision on Sister Prejean's testimony, and denied a renewed request for Waltham materials.
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Jury Instruction

4.Curative Instruction — Disregard Punishment Costs

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Jury InstructionJury Instr.Curative Instruction — Disregard Punishment Costs
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THE COURT: Jurors, let me just mention one thing. I believe it was yesterday there was some reference in the testimony to costs of running a prison and so on. Any possible cost to the government from any method of punishment is not an appropriate subject for you to be considering at all, and there are principally two reasons for that: First of all, it's just improper to consider cost in making the serious judgment you'll have to make. That's completely irrelevant to your decision and you're not to make it. The second is, of course, you don't have any information about that, what the cost of relative or possible punishments might be, so there's no way to make a rational judgment about it not having that information.

So there was some reference to it, but it's not a proper subject for you to consider, all right?

We'll take a short -- well, I don't know how long. We'll take a recess.

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COURT CLERK: All rise for the Court and the jury. The Court will take a recess.

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(The Court and jury exit the courtroom and there is a recess in the proceedings at 11:42 a.m.)

Continue to next page5.Prejean Proffer and Visit Details, Rebuttal Disclosure, and Waltham Materials Motion Denied
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← Mark Bezy — Cross/Redirect/Recross (Part 2)4 of 5Prejean Proffer and Visit Details, Rebuttal Disclosure, and Waltham Materials Motion Denied →