Understanding Reasonable Doubt in Law

Good afternoon, everyone. Uh, I just wanted to go over a couple of

things, uh, this afternoon. First off, I wanna

remind you that you are required to follow my

instructions on the law as I gave them to you. All right?

I also want to at this point, uh, go over, uh, the

instruction that I gave you about reasonable doubt. All right?

And so, uh

reasonable doubt. The burden is on the Commonwealth to prove beyond a

reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of the charges made

against her.

What is proof beyond a reasonable doubt?

Well, the term is often used and probably pretty well understood,

though it's not

easily defined. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not

mean

proof beyond all possible doubt, for everything in the lives of human

beings is open to some possible or imaginary doubt.

A charge is proved beyond a reasonable doubt if after you've

compared and considered all of the evidence, you have in your minds an

abiding conviction to a moral certainty that the charge

is true. When we refer to moral certainty, we mean

the highest degree of certainty possible in matters

relating to human affairs, based solely on the evidence

that has been put before you in this case.

I told you that every person is presumed to be innocent until they

are proved guilty, and that the burden of proof

is on the prosecutor.

If you evaluate all the evidence and you still have a reasonable doubt

remaining, the defendant is entitled to the benefit of that

doubt and must be acquitted. It's not enough

for the Commonwealth to establish a probability, even a strong

probability, that the defendant is more likely to be guilty than

not guilty. That is not enough. Instead,

the evidence must convince you of the defendant's guilt to a

reasonable and moral certainty, a certainty that convinces your

understanding and satisfies your reason and judgment as

jurors who are sworn to act conscientiously on the evidence.

This is what we mean by proof beyond a reasonable

doubt. All right. And with that, I'm going to ask you to, uh, resume

your deliberations.

Court, all rise