002

7

Refused

Object

In criminal cases, the party accused is always entitled
to the legal presumption in favor of innocence, which
in doubtful cases, is always sufficient to turn
the scale in favor of the accused.

It is therefore a rule of criminal law, that the guilt
of the accused must be fully proven.

The burden of proof is upon the prosecution.
All presumptions are in favor of innocence, and
every person accused of crime is presumed to be
innocent until he is proved to be guilty.
If upon such proof there is a reasonable doubt
remaining, the accused must be acquitted. For it
is not sufficient to establish a probability,
though a strong one, arrising [sic] from the doctrine of
chances that the fact charged is more likely to be
true than the contrary, but the evidence must
establish the truth of the fact to a reasonable and
moral certainity, a certainty that convinces and directs the understanding
and satisfies the reason and judgment of those who are bound to act
conscientiously upon it. It is not enough that the evidence goes to
show the guilt of the accused; it must go further and must be inconsis-
tent with the reasonable supposition of his innocence, or you are bound to
acquit the prisoner, in subserviency to that humane maxim of the law,
which clothed in the language of that great and good judge Lord Hale,
declares that "it is always better to err in acquitting than in
punishing, on the side of mercy, than on the side of justice.