Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 19, May 11, 2024
Rule 645 - Seating and Retention of Alternate Jurors(A) Alternate jurors, in the order in which they are called, shall replace principal jurors who become unable or disqualified to perform their duties.(B) Alternate jurors shall be retained after the jury retires to consider its verdict. The trial judge shall instruct the retained alternate jurors to continue to observe the admonitions to jurors until they are informed that a verdict has been returned or the jury has been discharged. A retained alternate juror shall not be permitted to be present in the jury room during deliberations unless he or she replaces a principal juror as provided in paragraph (C).(C) After the jury has retired to consider its verdict, a principal juror who becomes unable to perform his or her duties or is disqualified may be replaced with a retained alternate juror only if the trial judge is satisfied that the proper jury function is not harmed by the replacement. To ensure this, the trial judge shall: (1) colloquy the alternate juror on the record that the alternate juror has not been exposed to any improper influences; and(2) once the jury is reconstituted following the replacement of the principal juror by the alternate juror, colloquy and instruct the reconstituted jury on the record that:(a) The jurors understand that the reason the discharged juror was being replaced has nothing to do with the discharged juror's views on the case; and(b) The reconstituted jury understands that they must set aside and disregard all past deliberations and begin deliberations anew so as to eliminate the influence of the excused juror and so that the reconstituted jury will consider the evidence in the context of full and complete deliberations with the new juror.The provisions of this Rule 645 amended November 19, 2013, effective 1/1/2014, 43 Pa.B. 7076.