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Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 30

RULE 30. INSTRUCTIONS

(a) Special Requests. At the close of the evidence or at such earlier time during the trial as the court reasonably directs, any party may file written requests that the court instruct the jury on the law as set forth in the requests. At the same time copies of such requests shall be furnished to adversary counsel. The court shall inform counsel of its proposed action upon the requests, and any other portion of the instructions concerning which inquiries are made, prior to their arguments to the jury, but the court shall instruct the jury after the arguments are completed. The court may, in its discretion, entertain requests for instructions at any time before the jury retires to consider its verdict.

(b) Objections. After the judge has instructed the jury, the parties shall be given opportunity to object, out of hearing of the jury, to the content of an instruction given or to the failure to give a requested instruction, but failure to make objection shall not prejudice the right of a party to assign the basis of the objection as error in support of a motion for a new trial.

(c) Character, Use and Disposition of Instructions. In the trial of all felonies except where pleas of guilty have been entered, every word of the judge's instructions shall be reduced to writing before being given to the jury. The written charge shall be read to the jury as it shall be taken to the jury room by the jury when it retires to consider its verdict. The jury shall have possession of the written charge during its deliberations; and after the jury's deliberations have been concluded, the written charge shall be returned to the judge and filed with the record, but need not be copied into the minutes.

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Committee Comment

This rule generally assures that counsel will know what the charge will contain before making the summation argument to the jury.

Counsel may privately object to a portion of the charge. Failure to do so is no waiver; however, meritorious objections at that time may avoid unnecessary litigation.

The requirement that a written charge be used in felony cases, which must be taken by the jury to the jury room, returned to the judge, and filed with the other papers, reiterates present law.

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