DelawareJury Nullification
In Delaware the judge states the law and the jury is the sole judge of the facts. The standard instruction tells jurors to apply the law as the judge gives it. The state constitution keeps trial by jury in seven words. A court rule requires every verdict to be unanimous.
Overview
Juries in Delaware
Delaware's standard instruction puts it in one line. The judge states the law, and the jury applies it to the facts as the jury finds them. A Superior Court rule requires the verdict to be unanimous.
The same rule says what happens after a verdict is read. Any party can ask for each juror to be polled. What follows when the poll is not unanimous is in the Delaware chapter of the guide.
The Delaware constitution keeps the right in seven words: trial by jury shall be as heretofore. What that sentence points back to is in the chapter.
The Delaware chapter
What's in the Guide for Delaware?
Jury selection
How a Delaware court decides during questioning whether a possible juror can be fair, and what happens when a person says they will not decide the case on the judge's instructions.
What the judge tells you
What the Delaware instruction on the duties of judge and jury says, when in the trial jurors hear it, and what they take into the jury room with them.
How the verdict works
How a Delaware jury is polled, what the court can do when the poll is not unanimous, and what the verdict rule says about verdicts on some charges but not others.
Protections and risks
What protects a Delaware juror after the verdict, who counts as a juror under the state's tampering law, and what that law says about paying for information about a juror's service.
The law in plain English
The Delaware laws behind the chapter in everyday words. They include the law on tampering with a juror, the Superior Court rule on verdicts and polling, and the jury section of the state constitution.
Official state resources
Links to Delaware's official sources, each one checked. They cover the state code and constitution, the Superior Court's criminal rules and pattern jury instructions, and the Delaware Courts' Jury Service page.
Your summons
Called for Jury Duty in Delaware?
A Delaware jury summons asks you to come to court and help decide the facts of a case. If you are picked, the judge will state the law and you and the other jurors will apply it to what you find happened.
The Delaware Courts have a Jury Service page for people who have been called. It covers reporting, who can serve, and how to ask to be excused.
That page covers serving. How the court decides who can be fair, what the judge's instruction asks of you, and what a poll of the jury is are covered in the Delaware chapter of the guide.
Your Delaware summons
- Sent byThe Superior Court of your county, or the federal court
- Names come fromRegistered voters and holders of a Delaware driver's license or state ID card
- It asks you toCome to court and help decide the facts of a case
- Jury size12 (Superior Court); fewer by stipulation with the court's approval