Instructions to the Jury on Closing Arguments

Guilt Phase

November 1, 2004

JUDGE: We've come to the part of the trial now which is called argument. The law permits the attorneys for either side to argue to you reasonable inferences and deductions from the evidence that's been presented; okay? The prosecutor makes an opening argument. The defense attorney makes his argument. And then the prosecutor has a closing argument. The reason why the prosecutor gets two chances to argue to you is that the prosecutor has the burden of proof. Since he has the burden of proof, the law gives him two chances, okay? Now, during the course of these arguments, if the attorneys make reference to some portion of the evidence that's different from your recollection of what was testified to, feel free to disregard the attorney's version of what took place and rely on your own memory. You're the trier of fact. Sometimes during the course of the trial the lawyers will ask a question, and while they're formulating the next question they may not hear the answer the same way you did. So it's not an intent to deceive you by any means, but it happens, okay? So the point is if there's a conflict in the evidence, if you have -- and your recollection is that it's one way -- and, of course, you have your notes, and we have read back, too -- you can rely on your own version of the events that took place, okay?