Williams v. State

1. Error is assigned upon the following excerpt from the charge of the court: “Now I have charged in all criminal cases (and you have heard me until it gets to be an old song with me) the defendant in all cases comes before the court and jury with the presumption of innocence in his favor.” It is contended that the word in parentheses tended to minimize a fundamental right of the defendant, and that they gave the impression to the jury that the law of the presumption of every defendant’s innocence “amounted to no more than an archaic rule, a pure technicality, and should be treated lightly,…