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Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

By Baker Associates

The beauty of the American criminal justice system is that it allows a defendant to be presumed innocent until he is proven guilty, and that proof must establish that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This also means that the burden is on the prosecution (almost always the state or federal government) to prove that the defendant is guilty rather than being placed on the defendant to prove that he is innocent. The concept of reasonable doubt has been defined in many ways by many states, but it is sufficient to say that if a reasonable person would harbor a doubt about the defendant?s guilt in that particular case, the defendant should not be convicted. This means that criminal cases do not require the jurors to be 100% certain that the defendant is guilty but they must be pretty close to that level of certainty to harbor no reasonable doubts at all...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog on July 08, 2010 (boomark / email).