📄 Jury instructions — Friday, August 4, 1995
📅 Aug 4 — Day 129
⚖️ Lance A. Ito
jury
Address:
C:\DEPT103\CRIMINAL\1995\AUG\4\JURY-INSTRUCTIONS.DOC
TRIAL
▲ Day 129 of 167

Jury instructions

Date: Friday, August 4, 1995 • Utterances: 6
Judge Ito adjourns for the weekend, but first delivers a warm farewell tribute to his departing volunteer law clerk, praising her academic credentials and the work she did entertaining and coordinating services for the jury. He then issues standard weekend admonitions to the jury before releasing them until Monday morning.
1 THE COURT:

All right. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to take our recess at this time for the day. Before we do that, I just wanted to bring one matter to your attention before we conclude today. About a year ago when I first was assigned this case, I received a lot of unsolicited resumes from people who wanted to come work for the Court, and I got literally dozens of these, and I got one in particular that I recollect because it looked interesting, but it went in the same place that all the others went, which was in the round file. This individual persisted and sent it again and so I figured at least I would read it again more seriously, and it turned out that this person was a high honors graduate from Claremont McKenna College which as you know is one of this country's finest small liberal arts colleges here in the west coast and she had scored in the high nineties percentile in the LSAT. And looking at her work experience it was impressive in the things that she had done and I think that really caught my eye is that she had worked as a speech writer for a member of parliament in Britain. So I took her on as a volunteer non-law student since she had not gone to law school yet, and I figured, if nothing else, I can have her pick up my robe in the laundry. And she has been with us almost as year as a complete volunteer at no cost to the taxpayers of our county and actually, as you know, she has probably saved the taxpayers thousands of dollars for the goods and services that she has gotten for you, all the free meals in the restaurants, all the entertainment, all the wonderful things that have happened. She has also been introduced to basic legal research by the Pepperdine law students who work for me and you know her primary job is to keep you all entertained and I think she has done a great job. She now leaves us to begin her studies at a prestigious law school on the east coast, and I know that you join with me in wishing her good luck with her studies. We all know that, demonstrating her talents, she will obviously be highly successful in whatever it is she chooses to do in her cheer. And I suspect that in my years of retirement my claim to fame will be that she was once my law clerk. Thank you very much.

2 (Applause, applause, applause, applause, applause, applause.)
3 THE COURT:

All right. Now, having said that, please remember all my admonitions to you. Don't conduct any deliberations until the matter been submitted to you, don't form any opinions, don't allow anybody to communicate with you, and have a wonderful weekend. As far as the jury is concerned, we will see you all Monday morning nine o'clock sharp. Dr. Gerdes, you may step down. Nine o'clock Monday.

4 DR. GERDES:

Yes, sir.

5 THE COURT:

All right. You all have a nice weekend.

6 (At 12:05 P.M. an adjournment was taken until, Monday, August 7, 1995, 9:00 A.M.)

Temperature

light

Key Quotes (3)

Lance A. Ito
I figured, if nothing else, I can have her pick up my robe in the laundry.
Rare self-deprecating humor from the judge, delivered warmly before a genuine tribute.
Lance A. Ito
I suspect that in my years of retirement my claim to fame will be that she was once my law clerk.
Ito's most personal and candid remark of the trial — a genuine, unscripted moment of warmth.
Lance A. Ito
Don't conduct any deliberations until the matter been submitted to you, don't form any opinions, don't allow anybody to communicate with you, and have a wonderful weekend.
Standard jury admonition language, illustrating the abrupt pivot from warmth back to formality.

Notable Exchanges (1)

Lance A. ItoJury
Ito delivers an extended, personal farewell speech for his volunteer law clerk, prompting sustained applause from the jury.
warm and celebratory

Light Moments (2)

Lance A. Ito
Ito jokes that he hired an unqualified applicant thinking 'if nothing else, I can have her pick up my robe in the laundry,' before revealing her impressive credentials.
Jury
Sustained applause from the jury following Ito's farewell tribute to the departing law clerk.

Witness Demeanor

(Applause, applause, applause, applause, applause, applause.)

Objections

None recorded
Proceeding 7175 • 6 utterances
Criminal Trial
Department 103
⚖️ Start
📂 AUG 4, 1995 📄 Jury instructions
AUG 4, 1995 KRT DvH TD