State v. Aponte

Opinion

NORCOTT, J.

The principal issue in this certified appeal is whether the trial court’s instructions to the jury improperly imposed on the jury a mandatory presumption, thereby shifting the burden of proof from the state to the defendant and depriving the defendant of a constitutionally fair trial. Although the trial court’s instructions contained language that we have used in the past, the defendant claims that this language was improper in light of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U.S. 510, 99 S. Ct. 2450, 61 L. Ed. 2d 39 (1979).

The defendant,…