MassachusettsJury Nullification
In Massachusetts a model instruction tells jurors to follow the law as the judge gives it, whether they agree with it or not. The judge rules on the evidence and instructs on the law, and the jury decides the case. A court rule requires a unanimous verdict. The state constitution says no one loses life, liberty or property except by the judgment of their peers or the law of the land.
Overview
Juries in Massachusetts
The Massachusetts model instruction on the judge's role says it directly. Jurors must follow the law as the judge gives it, whether they agree with it or not. A court rule requires the verdict to be unanimous, and a second instruction says that holds for a verdict of guilty or of not guilty.
The same instruction tells jurors how to treat the instructions as a set. It names two things a juror must not do with them. What those are is in the Massachusetts chapter of the guide.
The Massachusetts constitution protects a person accused of a crime with the words the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. What the rest of that article says, and which jury article covers civil disputes, is in the chapter.
The Massachusetts chapter
What's in the Guide for Massachusetts?
Jury selection
When in a Massachusetts trial jurors first hear what the law asks of them, and why a person questioned during jury selection has not heard it yet.
What the judge tells you
What the Massachusetts model instructions say about the judge's job and the jury's, about following the law whether or not you agree, and about the burden of proof.
How the verdict works
What a unanimous verdict of guilty or not guilty asks of a Massachusetts jury, when a judge can poll the jurors, and how verdicts on some charges but not others work.
Protections and risks
How the Massachusetts law against intimidation names jurors and their families, and what it says about getting back at a person for taking part in a case.
The law in plain English
The Massachusetts laws behind the chapter in everyday words. They include the law on which issues go to a jury, the law on intimidating witnesses and jurors, the court rule on verdicts, and two articles of the state constitution.
Official state resources
Links to Massachusetts's official sources, each one checked. They cover the General Laws and constitution on the Legislature's site, the rules of criminal procedure and the model jury instructions on the state's own site, and its Jury Duty page.
Your summons
Called for Jury Duty in Massachusetts?
A Massachusetts jury summons asks you to come to court and, if you are picked, to decide a case on the evidence. The judge rules on the evidence and gives you the law.
The state's Jury Duty page covers reporting, who can serve, and how to ask to be excused.
That page covers serving. What the model instruction says about the law, how a unanimous verdict is reached and polled, and how state law protects jurors and their families are covered in the Massachusetts chapter of the guide.
Your Massachusetts summons
- Sent byThe Office of Jury Commissioner
- It asks you toCome to court and, if you are picked, decide a case on the evidence
- Jury size12 (Superior Court), 6 (District Court)