BURDEN OF PROOF, PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE, REASONABLE DOUBT

Under our constitutions, all defendants in criminal cases are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The burden of proving guilt is entirely on the State. The defendant does not have to prove his innocence. The defendant enters this courtroom as an innocent person, and you must consider him to be an innocent person until the State convinces you beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty of every element of the alleged offense. If, after all the evidence and arguments, you have a reasonable doubt as to defendant's having committed any one or more of the elements of the offense, then you must find him not guilty.

A "reasonable doubt" is just what the words would ordinarily imply. The use of the word "reasonable" means simply that the doubt must be reasonable rather than unreasonable; it must be a doubt based on reason. It is not a frivolous or fanciful doubt, nor is it one that can easily be explained away. Rather, it is such a doubt based upon reason as remains after consideration of all the evidence that the State has offered against it. The test you must use is this: If you have a reasonable doubt as to whether the State has proved any one or more of the elements of the crime charged, you must find the defendant not guilty. However, if you find that the State has proved all of the elements of the offense charged beyond a reasonable doubt, you should find the defendant guilty.

It appears, that in most cases, those charged with a crime are thought to be guilty until proven innocent in the court of public opinion fed by the media. Obviously, in this instance, the "state" could not prove without a reasonable doubt that MJ was guilty even though he is a very bizaar individual. Remember, the general public has not been privy to all of the facts, nor were we inside the courtroom hearing all of the testimony. Many have heard all of the charges and the "strange" behavior of Michael Jackson and assumed that the man was guilty of that which he was accused.

Our legal system is not perfect, but it is all that we have and we need to support it and understand what our duties are when we are called to serve.

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A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.