You may submit a question for a witness only to clarify an answer or to help you understand the evidence. Our experience with juror questions indicates that jurors rarely have more than a few questions for any one witness, and there may be no questions at all for some witnesses.
If you submit a question, the court staff will give it to me and I’ll share your questions with the lawyers in the case. If the rules of evidence allow your question, one of the lawyers or I will read your question to the witness. I may modify the form or phrasing of a question so that it’s allowed under the evidence rules.
Sometimes, I may not allow the questions to be read to the witness, either because the law does not allow it or because another witness is in a better position to answer the question. If I can’t allow the witness to answer a question, you must not draw any conclusions from that fact or speculate on what the answer might have been.
Here are several important things to keep in mind about your questions for the witnesses:
• Second, the court can’t re-call witnesses to the stand for additional juror questions. If you have a question for a particular witness, you must submit it when I ask.
• Finally, because you should remain neutral and open-minded throughout the trial, you should phrase your questions in a way that doesn’t express an opinion about the case or a witness. You must keep an open mind until you’ve heard all the evidence, the closing arguments, and my final instructions on the law.
