What are some possible instructions given by a judge regarding juror questions?
The judge may instruct the jury that questions are supposed to be for the purpose of clarifying complicated or confusing testimony, and not for the sake of arguing with a witness. The judge may instruct the witness that he or she should confine answers to the scope of the question. The trial judge may also instruct the trial attorneys to refrain from renewing in the presence of the jury any objections that were previously overruled. The judge may explain to the jury that evidentiary rules may prohibit certain questions from being asked of the witnesses and that the jurors should attach no significance to the fact that some of their questions were asked of the witnesses while others were not. Below is one example of a specific instruction to the jury regarding which questions were admitted and which were not: “During the course of this trial, the Court has allowed jurors to prepare questions to be asked of certain witnesses. Some of those questions were not asked. The jury must not conc
