3.Jury-Instruction Conference and Corroboration-Instruction Ruling
8 linesMR. KRATZ: No, Judge. We believe that the instructions -- And the Court is correct, we've had an informal, um, jury instruction conference, where, um, most, if not all, of these instructions were discussed.
We have now reviewed the, uh, proposed instructions. We have no objection to the instructions as presented, nor as to the verdict forms, uh, as included and set forth within those instructions.
THE COURT: I -- I would -- uh, I would just note, uh, I believe that I amended Instruction 525, uh, to make it conform to one that was given in the Avery case. Uh, I didn't have an opportunity to tell you that before then, but the amendment doesn't do anything substantively to it.
Now, to the defense.
MR. EDELSTEIN: Your Honor, as to the -- as to the, uh, packet most recently received, uh, we concur with those that are -- have been made available. I would, for the record, um, ask the Court to enter its ruling on the record regarding the defense instruction specifically requested, uh, re -- requesting that an instruction be provided regarding corroboration.
THE COURT: The defense had customized a -- construc -- uh, a -- an instruction that, uh, in effect, would have told the jury that before they could find the confession to be a valid confession, it had to be corroborated by a -- well, I'm going to call it a significant fact -- had to be corroborated by something in the record. Uh, the Court suggested, in the informal conference, that while it had reviewed that instruction, it was going to deny, uh, the defense motion to employ it as part of the jury instructions.
I will now do so formally. I'll deny it on the record. I do not believe -- I believe that the, uh, instruction on confession is, uh, sufficiently detailed in the course of the instruction that's going to be used as part of this particular jury instruction. I've forgotten whether it's 180 --
MR. FREMGEN: I believe it's 180.
THE COURT: 180? All right. And I think that -- yeah, it is. Instruction No. 180 deals with confessions and omis -- admissions, and I think that that is the appropriate instruction. I do not believe that, uh, giving what, in effect, is a legal argument as part of the instruction as requested by the defense is appropriate under the circumstances. Therefore, I'll respectfully deny your motion.
Now, what I'd like to do is to make, uh, 15 copies of this set of instructions. I'd like the jury to have them as I read them to them. And it probably is going to take another ten minutes to do that. So, I'm going to recess for that period of time.
(Recess had at 10:45 a.m.)
(Reconvened at 10:58 a.m. Jury in)