740
Opinion of the Court
need not decide whether testimony on this score by the alternate jurors or the regular jurors, through affidavits or at a Remmer-like hearing, would violate Federal Rule of Evidence 606(b), compare Watson, supra, at 1391-1392, and n. 17, with United States v. Beasley, 464 F. 2d 468 (CA10 1972), or whether the courts of appeals have authority to remand for Remmer-like hearings on plain-error review. Respondents have never requested a hearing, and thus the record before us contains no direct evidence that the alternate jurors influenced the verdict. On this record, we are not persuaded that the instant violation of Rule 24(c) was actually prejudicial.
Nor will we presume prejudice for purposes of the Rule 52(b) analysis here. The Court of Appeals was incorrect in finding the error "inherently prejudicial." 934 F. 2d, at 1439. Until the close of trial, the 2 alternate jurors were indistinguishable from the 12 regular jurors. Along with the regular jurors, they commenced their office with an oath, see Tr. 212 (Mar. 2, 1987), received the normal initial admonishment, see id., at 212-218, heard the same evidence and arguments, and were not identified as alternates until after the District Court gave a final set of instructions, see App. 89-90. In those instructions, the District Court specifically enjoined the jurors that "according to the law, the alternates must not participate in the deliberations," and reiterated, "we are going to ask that you not participate." Ibid. The Court of Appeals should not have supposed that this injunction was contravened. "[It is] the almost invariable assumption of the law that jurors follow their instructions." Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U. S. 200, 206 (1987). "[We] presum[e] that jurors, conscious of the gravity of their task, attend closely the particular language of the trial court's instructions in a criminal case and strive to understand, make sense of, and follow the instructions given them." Francis v. Franklin, 471 U. S. 307, 324, n. 9 (1985). See also Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668, 694 (1984) (in assessing
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