Rule Text
A. Except as provided in Paragraph B of this Article, any qualification of or addition to a verdict of guilty, beyond a specification of the offense as to which the verdict is found, is without effect upon the finding.
B. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, in addition to a specification of the offense as to which the verdict is found pursuant to Paragraph A of this Article, any fact that increases the maximum or mandatory minimum penalty for a crime, other than the fact of a prior conviction, may be submitted to the jury, and the verdict may include a specific finding of fact as to that issue.
Amendment history: Amended by Acts 1972, No. 502, §1; Acts 1973, No. 125, §1; Acts 2019, No. 326, §1, eff. June 11, 2019.
Plain-English Summary (for reference only — not a substitute for the rule text above)
This summary is not the rule. The rule text controls.
When a jury finds someone guilty, they just need to say which crime the person is guilty of. If the jury tries to add extra conditions or notes to their verdict beyond naming the crime, those extra additions don't count for anything. The verdict stands based only on the guilty finding itself.
There's one important exception to this. If some fact would increase the penalty someone faces, like a mandatory minimum sentence or a higher maximum sentence, the jury can be asked to make a specific finding about that fact. This doesn't apply to prior convictions, which are handled differently. So if a law says the punishment gets harsher when certain circumstances exist, the jury can officially decide whether those circumstances were proven, and that finding does count and can affect the sentence.
