ALTHOUGH ITS WORK continues, the committee formed in 1993 by the NH Bar Association to draft a new set of criminal jury instructions has released a version of its work thus far.

After more than nine years of painstaking work, the Criminal Jury Instructions Drafting Committee has produced over 140 pages of draft criminal jury instructions. The group continues to not only modify what it has produced, but is adding further instructions. Retired Superior Court Judge Robert H. Temple, who chairs the Drafting Committee, is careful to point out that the draft instructions have not yet been reviewed or approved by the Bar's Task Force on Criminal Jury Instructions, which oversees the Drafting Committee. "These drafts represent no more than the work-in-progress of the committee. They do not carry the imprimatur of the New Hampshire Bar Association," said Temple in a letter accompanying the draft instructions.

The draft criminal jury instructions can be found on this site in the "For Members" section. Hard copies of the draft instructions are also available at a cost of $5.00 per copy for postage and handling from the Bar Association upon request by calling Denice DeStefano at the Bar Center, 224-6942.

The committee released the draft instructions in response to many requests from Superior Court judges anxious to see the group's work to date. "There has been some interest from judges in seeing our progress, so we've released our work thus far," said Joan Bishop, the Drafting Committee's reporter and court coordinator of the NH Superior Court.

To date, the draft instructions include both general instructions and those specific to particular charges, including homicide, sexual assault and related offenses, theft, fraud and more. Also included are instructions regarding the insanity defense.

The Drafting Committee was formed in 1993 to review existing model criminal jury instructions, which were written in 1985, and to develop more extensive instructions. To do this, the committee - which is made up of about a dozen representatives from the Public Defender's Office, various state prosecutor's offices, retired and current judges (including Superior Court Judges Larry M. Smukler and Robert J. Lynn), and other court officials and Bar members - has been meeting on average once a month for group work sessions. Over the years, the committee has taken different approaches to its work, but it now meets as a group to identify which statutes might require jury instructions, be they felonies or misdemeanors, and then assigns each statute to an individual member for writing or re-writing. The draft instruction is submitted to the committee as a whole for review and editing, a process that continues until a final draft is completed. Temple said, however, that even those instruction deemed "final" drafts are still subject to review and change. "It's a lengthy back-and-forth process," he said.

Bishop said that some months, the committee is able to work on instructions for only one or two criminal charges because of the protracted drafting process, "and there are a lot of criminal charges," she pointed out.

Temple said that aside from the length of this drafting process - the committee originally hoped to be finished its draft about four years ago - the biggest challenge in developing these jury instructions has been reaching a consensus. "Everyone has a different idea about these instructions, it's difficult getting a meeting of the minds. Defense attorneys and prosecutors don't always agree," Temple chuckled.

Still, the committee "has endeavored to ensure that these draft instructions are balanced, comprehensible and accurate statements of law," Temple said in his letter accompanying the draft instructions.

Once the draft criminal jury instructions are completed and approved by the Bar's Task Force, they will serve as a model that judges and practitioners can use when developing jury instructions in a particular case. Attorneys can refer to them when offering suggestions as to what the judge's instructions to the jury should be, but judges are not required to use the model instructions. "No instruction we've developed will be applicable for every case alleging a particular charge," Temple said.

The committee encourages written comments on its draft criminal jury instructions as it continues its work. Comments can be mailed to Denice DeStefano at the NH Bar Association, 112 Pleasant St., Concord, NH 03301, or e-mailed to ddstefano@nhbar.org.

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