434 A.2d 368 | Conn. Super. Ct. | 1981
The defendant was charged in a three-count information with cruelty to persons in violation of General Statutes
The jury could reasonably have found the following facts: The defendant was employed as a Mental Retardation Aide (MRA) at Mansfield Training School during the period of the alleged offenses, August 1978 to May 1979. He was assigned to section D, a closed ward, in the south portion of a building known as Thomson Hall, which houses ambulatory male patients who are nonverbal and severely retarded. The twenty-eight inmates in section D are cared for by three continuous shifts of MRAs. Although four direct care staff members are considered the minimum safe level, at times fewer than four MRAs were on duty. On May 13, 1979, Elaine Steele, an MRA, was sent to section D to substitute for another MRA who became ill. The following day she made a report to Robert Hayward, the assistant director of the Residential Program, concerning acts of abuse *666 which the defendant had committed against certain inmates. The essence of the report was that the defendant had bounced up and down on an inmate's lap, had trained inmates to kick each other, had banged inmates' heads against the wall, and had kicked inmates in the groin. During the trial, Steele and several other employees testified that over the period in question they had seen the defendant commit similar acts of abuse. Some of them admitted that they had abused inmates themselves. A medical examination made on the day following Elaine Steele's original report revealed no physical injuries to the inmates reported to have been abused. Evidence was also offered that the Mansfield Training School officials conducting the in-house investigation had told those employees who testified against the defendant that in return for their testimony they would receive immunity from prosecution and that if they failed so to testify they could lose their jobs. All but one of the employees who so testified received promotions.
The court charged as follows: "And what is a reasonable doubt? A reasonable doubt is not a slight doubt. It is not a possible doubt. It is not a conjecture or a guess, nor does it arise from feelings of sympathy or pity for anyone who may be affected by your verdict. A reasonable doubt is one which is based on the evidence and flows naturally from the evidence or lack of evidence. It is, in short, a doubt which is based on reason." This instruction adequately defined a reasonable doubt as a doubt founded on reason as contrasted with a purely speculative doubt. State v. Derrico, supra. The charge on reasonable doubt, taken as a whole, was sufficient to present the case to the jury fairly, so that no injustice would result. Ibid.
It should also be noted that the court in charging upon the presumption of innocence had told the jury that "if a piece of evidence offered is capable of two reasonable constructions, one of which favors innocence, it must be given the construction favoring innocence." This instruction embodies substantially the content of the requested instruction in a form more comprehensible to the layman.
The defendant does not contend that the charge was incorrect as far as it went. Rather, he maintains *668
that in failing to include the instruction that proof beyond a reasonable doubt excludes every reasonable hypothesis except that of the defendant's guilt, the court omitted an essential element of the reasonable doubt charge. The charge requested by the defendant may not be incorrect and indeed this formulation has been set forth in several Connecticut cases. E.g., State v. Hall,
The inherent unreliability of accomplice testimony normally requires a particular caution to the jury. State v. Colton,
Our inquiry does not end here, however, for it remains to be determined whether it is likely that the error involved affected the result and, as a consequence, deprived the defendant of a fair trial. Because the defendant's claim does not involve the violation of a constitutional right, the burden rests upon him to demonstrate the harmfulness of the court's error. State v. Ruth,
After the original charge was given, the court made a supplemental charge repeating what it had originally said in its instructions on cruelty to persons. No exception was taken at either time. The supplemental charge in no way affects our decision, since an unobjectionable charge does not become erroneous by repetition. G R Tire Distributors, Inc. v. Allstate Ins. Co.,
There is no error.
In this opinion SHEA and COVELLO, Js., concurred.