State v. Wright

PHILLIPS, Judge.

Defendant was convicted of four counts of armed robbery in violation of G.S. 14-87. His request for a new trial is based upon a solitary assignment of error which contends that the presumption of innocence that is the right of each person tried for crime in this country was undermined “in the eyes of the jurors” by the court erroneously trying him in leg shackles and in failing to take adequate “remedial measures” to prevent the prejudice. The following legal principles, basic to restraining defendants in court and recognized by both parties in their briefs, are pertinent:…