North CarolinaJury Nullification
North Carolina's constitution says no person shall be convicted of any crime but by the unanimous verdict of a jury in open court. The pattern instruction tells jurors to apply the law as the judge gives it, and not as they think it is or might like it to be. A statute bars the judge from giving an opinion on whether a fact has been proved. The pattern instructions tell jurors that all twelve must agree.
Overview
Juries in North Carolina
North Carolina puts the unanimous verdict in its constitution. No person shall be convicted of any crime but by the unanimous verdict of a jury in open court. The pattern instructions tell jurors the same thing twice, including that a verdict cannot be reached by majority vote.
The pattern instruction on the function of the jury is five sentences long. It tells jurors to apply the law as the judge gives it, and not as they think it is or might like it to be. Then it gives a reason. What the reason is, is in the North Carolina chapter of the guide.
A North Carolina statute puts a limit on the judge as well. In instructing the jury, the judge may not express an opinion on whether a fact has been proved. What else that statute says is in the chapter.
The North Carolina chapter
What's in the Guide for North Carolina?
Jury selection
How a North Carolina judge settles the instructions with the lawyers before the arguments, what has to be said on the record, and when in the trial jurors hear about the law.
What the judge tells you
What the North Carolina pattern instruction on the function of the jury says, the reason it gives, and what state law bars a judge from saying about the facts.
How the verdict works
What it means that all twelve North Carolina jurors must agree, how a verdict is written, signed and returned, and how verdicts work when more than one person is on trial.
Protections and risks
What North Carolina law says about harassing or contacting a juror or a juror's spouse during a case, about threatening a former juror afterwards, and who counts as a juror under that law.
The law in plain English
The North Carolina laws behind the chapter in everyday words. They include the statute on what a judge may not say, the statutes on instructions and on the verdict, the law on harassing jurors, and two sections of the state constitution.
Official state resources
Links to North Carolina's official sources, each one checked. They cover the statutes and constitution on the General Assembly's site, the Judicial Branch's court rules, the free pattern jury instructions hosted by the UNC School of Government, and the Judicial Branch's Jury Service page.
Your summons
Called for Jury Duty in North Carolina?
A North Carolina jury summons asks you to come to court and, if you are picked, to decide the facts of a case and apply the law the judge gives.
The North Carolina Judicial Branch has a Jury Service page. It covers reporting, who can serve, and how to ask to be excused.
That page covers serving. What the pattern instruction asks of you and why, what a judge may not say about the facts, and how state law protects a juror during and after a case are covered in the North Carolina chapter of the guide.
Your North Carolina summons
- Sent byThe clerk of superior court for your county
- Names come fromLicensed drivers and registered voters
- It asks you toCome to court and, if you are picked, decide the facts of a case and apply the law the judge gives
- Jury size12