Fill and Sign the Jury Instruction Duty to Follow Instructions Etc When Any Defendant Does Not Testify Form

2.2 Duty to Follow Instructions Presumption of Innocence (When Any Defendant Does Not Testify) You must make your decision only on the basis of the testimony and other evidence presented here during the trial; and you must not be influenced in any way by either sympathy or prejudice for or against the Defendant or the Government. You must also follow the law as I explain it t o you whether you agree with that law or not; and you must follow all of my instructions as a whole. You may not single out, or disregard, any of the Court' s instructions on the law. The indictment or formal charge against any Defendant is not evidence of guilt. Indeed, every Defendant is presumed by the law to be innocent. The law does not require a Defendant t o prove innocence or to produce any evidence at all; and if a Defendant elects not to testify, you should not consider that in any way during your deliberations. The Government has the burden of proving a Defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and if it fails to do so you must find that Defendant not guilty. ANNOTATIONS AND COMMENTS United States v. Teague, 953 F.2d 15 25, 1539 (11t h Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 842, 113 S.Ct. 127, 121 L.Ed.2d 82 (199 2), Defendant who does not testify is entitled t o instruction that no inference may be drawn from that election; see also United States v. Veltman, 6 F.3d 14 83, 1493 (11th Cir. 1993) (Court w as "troubled" by "absence of instruction on the presumption of innocence at the beginning of the trial . . . . Although the Court charged the jury on the presumption before they retired to deliberate, we believe it extraordinary for a trial to progress to that stage with nary a mention of this jurisprudential bedrock.")