Case ID: ala-app_14/html/0023-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "THOMAS, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Kennedy v. The State.
    Crime.
    (Decided February 1, 1916.
    70 South. 957.)
    Charge of Court; Instructions; Reasonable Doubt.. — Charges directing the conviction of a defendant in a criminal case which omit the hypothesis of a belief of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, should be refused, and it is error to give such a charge.
    Appeal from Henry Circuit Court.
    Heard before Hon. M. Sollie.
    Dump Kennedy was convicted of crime, and he appeals.
    Reversed and remanded.
    H. L. Martin, for appellant. W. L. Martin, Attorney General, for the State.
   THOMAS, J.

The court erred in giving at the request of the solicitor the following charge: “If the jury believe the evidence in this case they must find defendant guilty.” It is faulty, in that it omits the words “beyond a reasonable doubt.”— Coe v. State, 113 Ala. 664, 21 South. 1025, and cases there cited.

Reversed and remanded.