ARTICLE II. Trials by Jury—Subdivision 1. Formation of the Jury.—2. Conduct of the Trial.—3. Verdict.
Subdivision 1.—Formation of the Jury.
Jury formed according to law.Sect. 262. The general mode of summoning, empanneling, challenging, and swearing a jury, shall be as otherwise provided by law.
Subdivision 2.—Conduct of the Trial.
Trial proceed, how.Sect. 263. When the jury has been sworn, the trial shall proceed in the following order, unless the court for special reasons otherwise direct: 1. The plaintiff must briefly state his claim, and he may briefly state the evidence by which he expects to sustain it. 2. The defendant must then briefly state his defence, and may briefly state the evidence he expects to offer in support of it. 3. The party who would be defeated, if no evidence were given on either side, must first procure his evidence; the adverse party will then produce his evidence. 4. The parties will then be confined to rebutting evidence, unless the court, for good reasons, in furtherance of justice, permits them to offer evidence in their original case. 5. When the evidence is concluded, either party may request instructions to the jury on points of law, and be heard upon the same, which shall be given or refused by the court; which instructions shall be reduced to writing, if either party require it. 6. The parties may then submit or argue the case to the jury. In the argument, the party required first to produce his evidence, shall have the opening and conclusion. If several defendants, having separate defences, appear by different counsel, the court shall arrange their relative order. 7. The court may again charge the jury after the argument is concluded.
When view of property is necessary.Sect. 264. Whenever, in the opinion of the court, it is proper for the jury to have a view of property which is the subject of litigation, or of the place in which any material fact occurred, it may order them to be conducted in a body under the charge of an officer to the place, which shall be shown to them by some person appointed by the court for that purpose. While the jury are thus absent, no person other than the person so appointed, shall speak to them on any subject connected with the trial.
