Opinion ID: 1221868
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: State's Instruction Number Four

Text: The State's instruction number four read: The Court instructs the jury that mere words, however `insulting or opprobrious' they may be, communicated directly or indirectly to the defendant, will neither justify or [sic] excuse he defendant from the commission of an assault upon a person, and as a matter of law, where the defendant has committed such an assault with a deadly weapon, proof that the victim or his wife uttered such words is not sufficient provocation to justify such an assault. The appellant argues that this instruction violates the principle of State v. Pendry, supra , by relieving the State of its burden of proof on a material element of the crime charged. In State v. Pendry we held, in syllabus point 4: In a criminal prosecution, the State is required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt every material element of the crime with which the defendant is charged, and it is error for the court to instruct the jury in such a manner as to require it to accept a presumption as proof beyond a reasonable doubt of any material element of the crime with which the defendant is charged or as requiring the defendant either to introduce evidence to rebut the presumption or to carry the burden of proving the contrary. State's instruction number four did not use or create any presumption. The instruction is a correct statement of the law on the point in this jurisdiction. See State v. Toler, 129 W.Va. 575, 41 S.E.2d 850 (1946); Syl. pt. 7, State v. Snider, 81 W.Va. 522, 94 S.E. 981 (1918). The instruction did not relieve the State of any material element of its burden of proof nor did it shift any burden to the appellant. It was not error on the part of the trial judge to give that instruction. This assignment of error was finally adjudicated on the appellant's original appeal. Because this instruction is not invalidated by State v. Pendry, supra , the trial judge's dismissal of the contention was proper under W.Va.Code, 53-4A-1 [1967], et seq.