State v. Bishop

In State v. Bishop, 346 N.C. 365, 385, 488 S.E.2d 769, 779 (1997), the trial court instructed the jury that a "'reasonable doubt is not a doubt suggested by ingenuity of counsel or by your own ingenuity not legitimately warranted by the testimony.'" Bishop, 346 N.C. at 400, 488 S.E.2d at 788. On appellate review, our Supreme Court held "the instruction given by the court, taken as a whole, properly informed the jury that reasonable doubt could arise out of insufficiency of the evidence." Id. Thus, the Supreme Court of North Carolina determined it was not reasonably likely that the jury applied the instruction in an unconstitutional manner. See id. at 401, 488 S.E.2d at 789.