Massachusetts Law About Juries and Jury Service
Best Bet
Office of Jury Commissioner. Everything you need to know if you've been summonsed for jury service, as well as an overview of the Massachusetts jury system.
Massachusetts Laws
Mass. Constitution Decl. of Rights Art. XII Right to trial by jury in criminal matters.
Mass. Constitution Decl. of Rights Art. XV Right to trial by jury in civil matters.
MGL c. 234A Office of Jury Commissioner
Federal Laws
28 USC 1861 – 1878 Juries; trial by jury
Jury Instructions
State
Criminal Model Jury Instructions, 2011 edition, Mass. District Court. Includes all model district court criminal jury instructions in PDF and WordPerfect formats.
Criminal Jury Instructions on Joint Venture, See "Appendix" in Commonwealth v. Zannetti, 454 Mass. 449 (2009) on P. 471.
Model Jury Instructions on Homicide, Mass. Trial Court. 76-page document provides jury instructions for all forms of homicide.
Federal
Civil Pattern Jury Instructions, Judge D. Brock Hornby, 2011. J. Hornby's Proposed Pattern Jury Instructions for four areas of civil law.
Pattern Criminal Jury Instructions for the District Courts of the First Circuit, Judge D. Brock Hornby, 2011.
Selected Cases
Commonwealth v. Lassiter, 80 Mass. App. Ct. 125 (2011). Held that a jury cannot be called back to re-deliberate once a verdict has been accepted.
Comm. v. Shea, 460 Mass 163 (2011). Provides a short history of allowing juror note taking, while strongly encouraging note taking to be routinely permitted. "We believe that an accurate memory of detailed facts is as important in a court room as it in a lecture hall or board room, where notetaking is almost invariably permitted. We refer the question whether we should revise our rules to require that jurors be permitted to take notes during some or all trials, or whether we should continue to leave such decisions to the discretion of the judge, to this court's standing advisory committees on the rules of criminal and civil procedure."
Web Sources
Brief Description of the Mass. Jury System. Office of Jury Commissioner.
Trial Juror Service, Office of Jury Commissioner.
Trial Juror's Handbook, Office of Jury Commissioner.
Grand Juror Service, Office of Jury Commissioner.
Grand Juror's Handbook, Office of Jury Commissioner.
Federal Jury Duty Information, US District Court, District of Massachusetts.
Wood, Pamela J., "Vantage Point: Massachusetts' Leadership Role in the American Jury System," 55 Boston Bar Journal 13 (Spring 2011).
Print Sources
Francis, Philip. How to serve on a jury, Oceana, 1979.
Jury Talk (DVD), LexisNexis, 2006.
Heuer, Larry and Steven Penrod, "Increasing juror participation in trials through note taking and question asking," 79 Judicature 256 (1996). Also available to library cardholders on Heinonline.