The North Carolina Conference of Superior Court Judges Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions held their monthly meeting at Elon University School of Law on October 1-2. The pattern jury instructions are used regularly in civil and criminal cases in the state's trial courts. Judges read the instructions to juries to help them understand the law and their duties in deciding the case before them.
The Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions is made up of a group of nine North Carolina Superior Court judges and one District Court judge. The committee creates a unique set of instructions for all matters of civil and criminal law in the state.
Judge Robert Hobgood, who chairs the committee, said the work to create and revise the instructions takes place throughout the year.
“We take new legislation after the General Assembly adjourns and we take new cases as the appellate courts issue opinions, and we incorporate that into the existing jury instructions for the use of judges across the state,” Judge Hobgood said.
Judge Lindsay Davis, who has served on the volunteer committee for the past seven years, said he found the work gratifying in serving the public interest.
“It is an honor and a privilege to do it,” Judge Davis said. “The participation is not for compensation in the ordinary sense, but in the feeling that one is assisting in the advancement of the goals of our judicial system to provide fair and impartial judicial proceedings. Jury instructions are essential to that process, ensuring that everyone charged with a crime or engaged in civil litigation is treated in the same way and has the same jury instructions given no matter where in the state a case is tried.”
The judges, who serve on the committee on a voluntary basis after being nominated by their peers, are: Robert Hobgood, committee chair; Richard Doughton, criminal subcommittee chair; Beverly Beal; Lindsay Davis; Charles Henry; Rebecca Knight; Jesse Caldwell; Quentin Sumner; Richard Boner; and Ben Alford.
Alan Woodlief, associate dean for administration and associate professor of law at Elon, has served as the research associate for the criminal subcommittee of the Pattern Jury Instruction Committee since 1999. His article, “An introduction to the North Carolina Pattern Jury Instructions,” was published in the North Carolina State Bar Journal in 2005. Click on the E-Cast link to the right of this article to read Woodlief’s article.
Judge Hobgood, who has served on the committee since 1986, said he has always found the work rewarding.
“The real reward comes in the satisfaction of the job and the camaraderie of the committee,” Judge Hobgood said. “It helps assure judges that they are up to date on how they instruct the jury as to the law, which reduces reversals and retrials. We attempt to write the instructions so they can be readily understood by jurors serving throughout the state.”
Dean Woodlief works with the criminal subcommittee, supported by a research assistant, Jessica Yanez, a third-year law student at Elon Law. Judge Jack Lewis is the research associate for the civil subcommittee, and is assisted by a UNC law student, Tim Nelson. The committee’s work is supported by The Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which prints, stores, and distributes the instructions to the North Carolina trial judges.