# Taylor v. Kentucky

> Supreme Court of the United States · May 30, 1978 · 436 U.S. 478

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9427216

## Case

- **Full name:** Taylor v. Kentucky
- **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States
- **Decided:** May 30, 1978
- **Citations:** 436 U.S. 478; 98 S. Ct. 1930; 56 L. Ed. 2d 468; 1978 U.S. LEXIS 95
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Brennan
- **Judges:** Powell, Burger, Brennan, Stewart, White, Marshall, Blackmun, Brennán, Stevens, Rehnquist
- **Cited by:** 694 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9427216

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that courts presume a jury follows a trial court’s instructions, but a jury may properly disregard statements made by counsel
- holding that “the combination of the skeletal [jury] instructions, the possible harmful inferences from the references to the indictment, and the repeated suggestions that petitioner’s status as a defendant tended to establish his guilt created a genuine danger that the jury w…
- holding that, in light of its rather “Spartan instructions” on the burden of proof together with other circumstances potentially prejudicial to the defendant, the trial court’s failure to instruct on the presumption of innocence violated the petitioner’s rights under the Due P…
- recognizing that a "presumption of innocence” instruction significantly aids the jury in understanding the prosecutor's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and also provides one means of explaining to the jury the accused’s constitutional right to be judged solely…
- recognizing that “[t]he principle that there is a presumption of innocence in favor of the accused is the undoubted law, axiomatic and elementary, and its enforcement lies at the foundation of the administration of our criminal law” (quotation omitted)

## Opinion text

Mr. Justice Brennan,
concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion because in reversing petitioner’s conviction it reaffirms that “the ‘presumption of innocence, although not articulated in the Constitution, is a basic component of a fair trial under our system of criminal justice,’ ” ante, at 479, quoting Estelle v. Williams, 425 U. S. 501, 503 (1976). It follows from this proposition, as is clear from the *491 Court’s opinion, that trial judges should instruct the jury on a criminal defendant’s entitlement to a presumption of innocence in all cases where such an instruction is requested.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9427216. Public record. Not legal advice.