Monday, April 02, 2007

Jury instructions: easy to poke fun

It's easy to poke fun at archaic jury instructions. Harder to rewrite them, as I'm finding out. Here's an example:
The jury shall be sworn by the court or under its direction, in substance as follows:

You, and each of you, do solemnly swear that in all cases between parties which shall be to you submitted, you will a true verdict render, according to the law, as it may be given you in charge by the court, and to the evidence submitted to you under the rulings of the court. So help you God.
Here's my effort:
The judge, or someone acting under the judge's direction, must swear in the jurors in substance as follows:

Each of you do solemnly swear that in all cases submitted to you, you will render a true verdict, according to the law given to by the court and according to the evidence submitted to you under the rulings of the court, so help you God.

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