Situation 1: You are serving on a jury for a murder trial. The evidence presented at trial was largely circumstantial and, in your mind, equivocal. During closing, the prosecutor argues that you must find the defendant guilty because he confessed to the crime.

 The defense attorney immediately objects, and the judge sternly instructs the jury to disregard the prosecutor’s statement. Although you do not know exactly what happened, you suspect that the confession was excluded because of some procedural error. Would you be able to ignore the prosecutor’s statement in your deliberations? Should you? Would you tell the judge if the jury members discussed the statement and seemed to be influenced by it? 

Situation 2

 You are a rookie police officer and are riding with a Field Training Officer (FTO). During your shift, the FTO stops at a convenience store and quickly drinks four beers in the back room of the store. He is visibly affected by the beers, and the smell of alcohol is noticeable. What should you do? What if the FTO had just written a favorable evaluation of you even though you should have received a reprimand for an improper disposition of a traffic accident?