Court Opinion

ID: 9577228
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:33:16.671074+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:20:12.799445
License: Public Domain

McINTYRE, Chief Justice
(concurring).
I write this special concurrence simply because I do not want to be understood as trying to tell the trial judges how to do their jobs. More than once we have said the instruction on presumption of innocence which was used in this case could not be disapproved.
Although I agree there is language in the instruction which probably could be left out without causing any handicap to the prosecution, nevertheless a trial judge in any given case should decide what is advisable with respect to instructions, as long as the instructions are legally correct and not prejudicial.
Therefore, I do not subscribe to the statement that certain language in the presumption of innocence instruction should not be given in the future. In other respects I concur in the opinion of Justice McEWAN.