McCowan v. State
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of murder. Defendant appealed, arguing, among other things, that the trial court erred in refusing his proposed final jury instruction regarding the presumption of innocence. The Court of Appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court granted transfer in order to state precisely what jury instructions a criminal defendant is entitled to receive regarding the presumption of innocence and held (1) it is the right of every criminal defendant to receive the following jury instruction upon request: “The presumption of innocence continues in favor of the defendant throughout the trial. You should fit the evidence to the presumption that the defendant is innocent if you can reasonably do so[ ]”; and (2) the trial court’s failure in this case to use this precise language was not error because the jury instructions adequately encompassed these principles.
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