Smith v. State

Citations

• 128 Miss. 258
• 90 So. 883

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law. Refusing instruction to acquit held not error in view of instructions on reasonable doubt; defendant, receiving more favorable instruction than the one refused, may not .complain.</p> <p>In a criminal case where the instructions inform the jury that they cannot convict unless the evidence shows guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the burden of proving this is on the state, and that the defendant is not required to prove his innocence, and that the law presumes him innocent, and that such presumption attends him through every stage of the trial until his guilt is established by the evidence beyond every reasonable doubt, it is not reversible error to refuse an instruction that if there is a probability of innocence a reasonable doubt’ exists, and the jury should acquit. Where the defendant has obtained more favorable instruction than the one refused, and the refused one is an abstract one, the court will not reverse.</p>