Rule 16-16. Jury Deliberations

After the case has been submitted to the jury, the jurors shall be in the custody of an officer who shall permit no person to be present with them or to speak to them when assembled for deliberations except a qualified interpreter assisting a juror who is deaf or hard of hearing. The jurors shall be kept together for deliberations as the judicial authority reasonably directs. If the judicial authority permits the jury to recess its deliberations, the judicial authority shall admonish the jurors not to discuss the case until they reconvene in the jury room. The judicial authority shall direct the jurors to select one of their members to preside over the deliberations and to deliver any verdict agreed upon, and the judicial authority shall admonish the jurors that until they are discharged in the case they may communicate upon subjects connected with the trial only while they are convened in the jury room. If written forms of verdict are submitted to the jury, the member of the jury selected to deliver the verdict shall sign any verdict agreed upon.

Committee Notes

(See Sec. 856, P.B. 1978-1997.) (P.B. 1998.) (Amended June 13, 2019, to take effect Jan. 1, 2020.)