Legal Definitions - deliberate-indifference instruction

A deliberate-indifferenceinstruction is a legal instruction given to a jury in a criminal case. It means that a defendant can be found guilty of a crime even if they claim they did not know certain facts about the crime, but the circumstances surrounding the crime would have made a reasonable person aware of those facts.

For example, if a person is caught with a bag of drugs but claims they did not know the bag contained drugs, a deliberate-indifference instruction may be given if the person had taken the bag from a known drug dealer and could smell marijuana coming from the bag. This means that the jury can infer that the person knew the bag contained drugs, even if they did not have direct knowledge of it.

The deliberate-indifference instruction is also known as the Jewell instruction, named after a court case that established this legal principle.