State v. Mason

The defendant’s principal assignments of error relate to the charge to the jury and present the question: Did the court below err in failing to charge the jury that in order to find defendant guilty, it must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant wilfully failed, after demand made of him, to support his illegitimate child?

Pertinent excerpts from the trial judge’s charge necessary for our consideration are:

“Now in this case, as I understand it, and if I misunderstand it I wish counsel for the defendant and for the State to correct me, there is only one question for you gentlemen…