Meeting the Movement: Examining Capital Jury Instructions in the Age of Social Justice

As courts nationwide consider improvements to ensure equal access to justice, the members of the Criminal Jury Instructions Committee will explain why the words we give our jurors is essential to achieve this goal.

What You’ll Learn:

1. How instructions are drafted and reviewed in order to be adopted for publication by the State Bar of Arizona, and how the Criminal Jury Instructions Committee operates
2. Current proposals before the Criminal Jury Instructions Committee aimed at addressing implicit bias
3. The Arizona Supreme Court’s upcoming Capital Jury Instructions Committee, which will be composed of capital prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and other professionals. Learn how this Committee will be working together to revise jury instructions in death penalty cases to make the instructions more accessible to jurors, and how this redrafting can help avoid conscious and unconscious bias entering the deliberation process
4. Instructions in Limited Jurisdiction Courts. Learn what makes a misdemeanor offense jury eligible and about the new misdemeanor instructions

Presented by: Criminal Jury Instructions Committee

Chair
Carlos Daniel Carrion, Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office

Faculty
Hon. Elizabeth T. Bingert, Maricopa County Superior Court
Paul W. Hawkins, Mesa City Prosecutor’s Office
Hon. Steve W. McCarthy, Maricopa County Superior Court
Mikel Steinfeld, Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office