pattern jury instructions Archives – North Carolina Criminal Law

New Pattern Jury Instructions Available Along with Updated Online Library

October 12, 2023 by Shea Denning

Each year the School of Government publishes new and revised pattern jury instructions for civil, criminal, and motor vehicle negligence cases. Those instructions are created and compiled by the North Carolina Conference of Superior Court Judges Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions. The 2023 updates are available for free download here. Among this year’s changes are new civil instructions related to breach of fiduciary duty and new and revised criminal instructions for the arson offenses created by S.L. 2022-8 and for the changes to organized retail theft crimes enacted by S.L. 2022-30.

Keep reading to learn about improvements to the School’s online library of pattern jury instructions and about the School’s plan to publish comprehensive, searchable electronic versions of pattern jury instructions in future years.

Interim Pattern Jury Instructions for Substitution of Alternate Jurors Are Available

December 2, 2021 by Shea Denning

This legislative session, the General Assembly amended G.S. 15A-1215(a), effective October 1, 2021, to permit an alternate juror to replace a regular juror after deliberations have begun. S.L. 2021-94 (discussed in more detail here). The North Carolina Conference of Superior Court Judges Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions has created a new instruction for judges to utilize when substituting an alternate juror after deliberations have begun and has amended the existing closing pattern instruction to ensure that alternate jurors refrain from discussing the case with anyone until they are discharged from service. The revised interim instructions are available here.

Court of Appeals Rules Pattern Jury Instruction Inadequate in Felony Indecent Exposure Case

August 15, 2018August 6, 2018 by Jeff Welty

Last month, the court of appeals ruled that the pattern jury instruction for felony indecent exposure was inadequate given the facts of the case before it. The case is State v. Hoyle.

The Statutory Felony Disqualification for Self-Defense

June 7, 2016 by John Rubin

I am working on a new edition of the self-defense book I wrote in 1996. As in the story of Rip Van Winkle, a lot has changed in twenty years. Most notably, the General Assembly adopted new statutes in 2011 on self-defense and related defenses. This blog post addresses one of those provisions, in G.S. 14-51.4, which disqualifies a person from relying on self-defense while committing, attempting to commit, or escaping from the commission of a felony. North Carolina appellate courts have not yet considered the meaning of this provision. Cf. State v. Rawlings, ___ N.C. App. ___, 762 S.E.2d 909 (2014) (felony disqualification did not apply to case in which defendant’s offense predated enactment of provision, and court expressed no opinion on proper construction of provision).

Pattern Jury Instructions Now Available for Free Online

March 4, 2015March 4, 2015 by Jeff Welty

Yesterday, I received the following announcement from a colleague here at the School. I thought that it was worth sharing in its entirety:

The North Carolina Pattern Jury Instructions (PJI) are now available, for free, in PDF Format in an Online Library from the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government. The Pattern Jury Instructions also remain available in hard copy and software formats.