Taylor v. Kentucky

Only two Terms ago, this Court observed that the “presumption of innocence, although not articulated in the Constitution, is a basic component of a fair trial under our system of criminal justice.” Estelle v. Williams, 425 U. S. 501, 503 (1976). In this felony case, the trial court instructed the jury as to the prosecution’s burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but refused petitioner’s timely request for instructions on the presumption of innocence and the indictment’s lack of evidentiary value. We are asked to decide whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires…