State v. Hooks

In State v. Hooks, 353 N.C. 629, 632, 548 S.E.2d 501, 504 (2001), cert. denied, 534 U.S. 1155, 122 S. Ct. 1126, 151 L. Ed. 2d 1018 (2002), cert. denied, 360 N.C. 178 (2005), the trial court instructed the jury, in pertinent part, that a reasonable doubt is not "a doubt suggested by the ingenuity of counsel for either side or even by your own ingenuity of mind, not legitimate or warranted by the evidence and the testimony you've heard in this case." On review, our Supreme Court held that: "When read in context, this phrase instructs the jury that a doubt created by the ingenuity of counsel that is not supported by the evidence is not a reasonable doubt." Id. at 635, 548 S.E.2d at 506. The instruction was deemed permissible because the instructions given by the Hooks Court were substantially the same as those provided to the jury in Bishop. Id.