What are the restrictions on the jury as fact finder?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The jury is permitted to consider only facts presented in court as evidence. Jurors are not permitted
to conduct their own investigations, look up information about the case in newspapers, or read scientific
journals or other scholarly materials to weigh the validity of forensic evidence. In addition, jurors are to
consider only evidence properly admitted in the case. If items were raised at trial but excluded by the
judge, jurors are instructed to “disregard” that evidence. The most important restriction on what the jury
can consider in establishing the facts of a case is prohibition of their considering a defendant’s failure to
testify at trial. As the Fifth Amendment gives a defendant the right to refrain from testifying, it would be
wrong for a jury to infer anything from the exercise of this right. Finally, the jury is not permitted to
consider possible punishments. As the jury is to determine the facts of the case based solely on the
evidence presented, and the consequences of their verdict are clearly outside this factual determination,
juries are expressly instructed not to consider what will happen to the defendant if they vote to convict.