Williams v. State

— The defendant, Bill Williams, was convicted of rape of a child under twelve years of age, sodomy, and incest. He received sentences of life, two to fourteen years, and two to twenty-one years respectively. Upon his appeal to this Court, only one of his numerous assertions of trial error mandates discussion: did the trial court err in refusing to read the final instructions to the jury?

This Court has examined the problem of jury instructions at length in Purdy v. State, (1977) 267 Ind. 282, 369 N.E.2d 633. There we held that when the trial court’s duty to instruct is delegated to the jury…