State v. McCullers

HEDRICK, Chief Judge.

Defendant first assigns error to the definition of “reasonable doubt” used in the court’s charge to the jury. The instruction prepared by defendant was not used, and he now argues that the instruction given to the jury did not conform to his requested instruction and that it erroneously placed upon defendant the burden of establishing the existence of a reasonable doubt. A trial judge is not required to give an instruction exactly as requested, but is merely required to give a correct instruction of the applicable law. State v. Monk, 291 N.C. 37, 54, 229 S.E. 2d 163, 174…