Brief on Reasonable Doubt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Brief on Reasonable Doubt - Essay Example ndard in criminal cases started even during the ancient times which became formalized in the phrase â€Å"beyond a reasonable doubt† that occurred in the late 1798 (American Law Review, 642). In common law jurisdictions, this is now an accepted standard wherein the prosecution must be able to convince the trier that all the elements of guilt have been satisfied (Broun, 341). The United States Supreme Court on one occasion in 1970, explained that the due process clause proof beyond reasonable doubt of the essential facts of a crime charged against the accused, is the standard that guards the accused against an innocent person that may be found guilty (In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358 (1970). In the trial of cases, the jury is always instructed to apply reasonable doubt test to determine the innocence or guilt of the accused (U.S. v. Pepe, 501 F.2d 1142, 1143 (10th Cir. 1974). However defining reasonable doubt is not required by Courts (Torres v. State, 2003 WL 21757509 (Tex. App. El Paso 2003). There were attempts to define what reasonable doubt is. In the Commonwealth v. Webster, reasonable doubt has been defined as, â€Å"that state which, after the entire comparison and consideration of all the evidence, leaves the minds of jurors in that condition that they cannot say they feel an abiding conviction, to a moral certainty, of the truth of the charge,† Commonwealth v. Webster, 59 Mass. (5 Cush.) 295, 320 (1850). In another case, reasonable doubt has been explained to be that which is â€Å"founded upon a real tangible substantial basis and not upon mere caprice and conjecture,† (Cage v. Louisiana, 498 U.S. 39, 111 S. Ct. 328, 112 L. Ed. 2d 339 (1990). It is that doubt which would raise ‘grave uncertainty’ in ones mind because of insufficient or the lack of evidence in prosecuting a person of a crime (Bergman and Hollander, 4). Such a doubt must be an ‘actual substantial doubt’ that a reasonable man can assess (Bergman and Hollander, 2008). The certainty of