People v. McLaughlin

The law does not cast upon me the duty of concluding whether error was actually committed in the defendant’s case. On the contrary, the statute is that if any assigned error give rise to “ reasonable doubt whether the judgment should stand ” it is my duty, without going further, to grant a certificate of reasonable doubt to operate as a stay of the judgment pending appeal. I have such doubt, and being unable to resolve it after careful deliberation, I must unhesitatingly respond to the injunction which the law lays upon me and allow the stay without regard to my personal inclination.

Whether…