Court Opinion

ID: 9703125
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:41:36.516319+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:45.853808
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
concurring.
Nothing is more basic to our jury trial system than the fundamental doctrine that jurors are to decide cases on the basis of the testimony and the law presented to the jurors in open court under the direction of the trial judge and in the presence of counsel.
Manifestly, it is highly improper for a juror to be influenced in the jury deliberations by any information concerning the case which a juror obtains or is given outside the courtroom during the course of trial. However, such improprieties result more often from jurors’ ignorance of their duties than from deliberate juror misconduct.
Therefore, to avoid such occurrences, the judge should instruct the jurors at the beginning of the case that it is their duty to consider only the evidence and the law given to the jury in the courtroom and to disregard anything they may have learned about the case outside the courtroom, whether before or during trial. See Devitt and Blackmar, Federal Jury Practice and Instructions, vol. 1, § 10.01 at 256-61 (3d ed. 1977); Supreme Court Committee for Proposed Standard Jury Instructions, Pa. Suggested Standard Criminal Jury Instructions § 2.04(3) (1979). By informing jurors of their responsibilities before the trial begins, such an instruction would help greatly to advance the integrity of our truth-seeking process.