Court Opinion

ID: 9566964
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:45:35.839438+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:32.807844
License: Public Domain

Shabp, J.,
concurring: I concur fully in the result reached by the majority opinion, but I deem its reference to the case of State v. Hammonds, 241 N.C. 226, 85 S.E. 2d 133, to be misleading and the quotations therefrom to be inapplicable to the definition of reasonable doubt which the court gave to the jury in this case. There are many acceptable definitions of reasonable doubt. Indeed, this Court has said, “The words ‘reasonable doubt’ in themselves are about as near self-explanatory as any explanation that can be made of them.” State v. Wilcox, 132 N.C. 1120, 1137, 44 S.E. 625, 631, quoted with approval in State v. Phillip, 261 N.C. 263, 269, 134 S.E. 2d 386, 391.
Here Judge Clark told the jury, “‘(B)eyond a reasonable doubt’ . . . does not mean a vain, imaginary or fanciful doubt, but it means a sane, rational doubt. It means that you, the jury, must be fully satisfied or entirely convinced of the truth of the charge against this defendant.” This definition has been approved many times. State v. Phillip, supra; State v. Braxton, 230 N.C. 312, 52 S.E. 2d 895; and see the cases collected in State v. Hammonds, supra at 232, 85 S.E. 2d at 138. It is only when reasonable doubt is defined as “a doubt arising out of, or growing out of, the evidence in the case” that it is error for the judge not to add “or from the lack or insufficiency of the evidence,” or some equivalent expression. State v. Braxton, supra. But whether such failure will “warrant a new trial will be determined by the evidence involved.” State v. Hammonds, supra at 233, 85 S.E. 2d at 139.
The definition of reasonable doubt employed by the court in this case contains no error of omission.
Bobbitt, J., joins in the concurring opinion.