Carpenter v. State

Pope, Judge.

Lucy Lee Carpenter was convicted of three counts of burglary. Her sole enumeration on appeal cites as error the trial court’s charge as to an explanation of her recent possession of stolen property. She contends that the charge was impermissibly burden-shifting because she did not, in fact, testify in her own behalf and because the trial court did not charge the jury that her failure to testify could not be used by them as an inference of guilt.

The trial court gave the following charge: “If you should find and believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the premises in this County…