Court Opinion

ID: 9686394
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 15:45:53.831191+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:18.584087
License: Public Domain

DIXON, Justice
(concurring).
I concur. However, our ruling on Bill of Exceptions No. 27 should be further explained.
Requested charges 2, 3 and 4 in Bill of Exceptions No. 27 are, as noted in the per curiam, contained in the trial judge’s charge to the jury. The charge as given by the trial judge adequately instructed the jury as to the meaning of “reasonable doubt.”
When read as a whole, the trial judge’s charge covered the defendant’s requested *1153charge number 1. Specifically, the jury was instructed that if they found “the evidence unsatisfactory on any single point indispensably necessary to constitute the defendant’s guilt,” such would be sufficient grounds for reasonable doubt to find the defendant not guilty. It was up to the jury to believe or disbelieve the witnesses’ testimony as to the identification of the defendant. Although the trial court probably should have instructed the jury as requested by the defendant pursuant to C.Cr.P. article 807, since the charge requested was not incorrect, the matters contained in the requested charge number 1 are implicit in the charge as given.