MINNEAPOLIS — Jury instructions are something you usually don't hear about until just before deliberations.
But prosecutors in the Kim Potter case are asking the judge to nail them down now because the defense is asking for some that are out of the ordinary — that would greatly help their chances at acquittal.
The lawyers for former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter say their defense against manslaughter charges will be "innocent accident, innocent mistake, her perceived use of a Taser was reasonable, and lack of causation."
To help plant those ideas into the jury's heads, the defense team wants Judge Regina Chu to give specific instructions to the jury before they deliberate. Instructions that essentially say, if Potter believed she was firing a Taser rather than her gun, then she's not guilty.
"The jury instructions are critical because a jury verdict can rise and fall on what a jury was instructed," said defense attorney Mike Brandt, who has reviewed the prosecution and defense's proposed jury instructions.
Brandt calls jury instructions the pieces of the puzzle that help a jury decide whether the state proved its case.
And the defense is asking for some of the legal jargon to be spelled out in a way that is very beneficial to them.
For example, they want the instructions to say the state needs to prove Potter "consciously took a chance of causing death or great bodily harm" in such a way that she had an awareness of the risk, but disregarded it.
And another proposed instruction flatly says: "If Officer Potter's discharge was accidental, no causation exists between the death of Mr. Wright and her not unreasonable act."
"What the defense is asking for, if they got all of them, I think an acquittal would almost be assured. But I find it unlikely they're going to get everything. Bottom line — it's huge. It really is," Brandt said.
Brandt says the prosecution is requesting the judge to stick closer to standard jury instructions.
They even filed an objection, saying the defense's version will confuse the jury.