Opinion ID: 2350621
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The trial court's alleged expression of opinion on the facts of the case.

Text: As his final point of appeal the defendant complains of the following instruction given by the presiding Justice: But in any event, as you consider each piece of evidence, and as accepted as sound, credible and logical evidence, if it leads you to a point where you feel that this contributes to your understanding of what occurred on this particular night, you are going to put it, figuratively of course, on that board like a painting, and you are going to daub in something here and daub in something there, and put something else in another corner, somewhat like a cross-word puzzle, but a composite picture, and slowly as you assimilate and evaluate and weigh and find the truth and put it on that board, there is going to appear a picture and the picture will be of what occurred on that night of September 27, 1972. It won't be a clear picture to the extent that it will be a perfect one. There may even be a few parts missing, or it may be somewhat cloudy, but nevertheless, there is a picture you can see as though you were watching it. That would mean to me, if you can do that in your mind's eye, you have assembled proof beyond a reasonable doubt (emphasis added). The defendant urges that this instruction contains the suggestion that facts had been established which proved the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the instruction therefore violates 14 M.R. S.A. § 1105, which forbids the presiding Justice from expressing an opinion on the facts of the case in the context of his charge to the jury. We disagree. The instruction is nothing more or less than a metaphorical description of the path which the finder of fact must traverse in order to find a criminal defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The use of the conjunction if at the beginning and at the end of the instruction plainly indicates that the instruction was entirely conditional: if the jury were able to assemble a credible composite picture of the events of the night of September 27, then they might conclude that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Moreover, the presiding Justice carefully fulfilled his exacting role and he painstakingly detailed for the jury the issues in the case. The Justice properly admonished the jury that the decision was completely within its province and that as the presiding Justice, he had no interest or desire in influencing that decision. As we read the charge in its entirety, we are impressed with the clarity of its language and the effort of the presiding Justice to posit the issues squarely before the jury in a fashion both fundamentally fair and neutral. We are confident that the jurors, as reasonable persons specially selected for jury service in this case, were well aware of their unique and exclusive function in weighing the evidence produced before them and in determining from the evidence, the guilt or innocence of the accused. We find that the jury, so constituted, could not properly infer from the instructions, any such expression of opinion in violation of 14 M.R.S.A. § 1105, as asserted by the defendant. State v. Jewell, Me., 285 A.2d 847, 852 (1972). In determining the effect of the challenged instruction upon the validity of the respondent's conviction, we accept the well-established proposition that a single instruction to a jury will not be judged in artificial isolation, but must be viewed in the context of the overall charge. Armstrong, Palumbo, Jewell, supra . The defendant's claim of error is without merit. The entry must be: Appeal denied.