Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

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.

In American courts, the idea that defendants must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt extends to every element of a criminal offense, meaning that the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had the requisite criminal intent and knowledge if it is required, that the defendant committed whatever acts are prohibited by that statute, and that the defendant caused the harm alleged in that statute. Many criminal cases are decided favorably for defendants based simply on the fact that the state cannot prove one or more particular elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. An experienced criminal defense attorney can examine all the facts and circumstances of the case, decide which element(s) the state cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and make the state’s inability to prove that fact apparent to the court and jury which greatly increases a defendant’s chance of acquittal or dismissal.