City of Billings v. Briner

In City of Billings v. Briner, 228 Mont. 518, 744 P.2d 877, 878 (Mont. 1987) a defendant was convicted of driving fifty miles per hour where the posted speed limit was twenty-five miles per hour. In its jury instructions, the trial court simply defined the reasonable doubt standard and described the violation of speeding based on the wording of the relevant statute. Id. The defendant argued that he was not given an instruction that the jury was required to prove each and every element of the offense. Id. The Montana Supreme Court responded simply that "taken together, the instructions properly apprise the jury of the prosecutor's burden and the elements of the offense of speeding." Id. The conviction was affirmed. Id. at 879.