Opinion ID: 2360027
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Measure of Proof

Text: The Defendant asserts to us that the correct measure of the State's proof on the venue issue is that of beyond a reasonable doubt. As to this question, the Rules are silent and this Court has not had occasion to address the subject directly in judicial opinions. We have observed that venue is not an element of a crime. State v. Dyer, Me., 301 A.2d 1 (1973). In State v. DiPietrantonio, 152 Me. 41, 122 A.2d 414 (1956) there was incidental language which suggested that the Court was thinking of the question in terms of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. While the presiding Justice had submitted the issue to the jury for determination of proof by that standard, the attention of the Court on appeal was not focussed upon this precise issue. We declined to consider the dictum of DiPietrantonio to have any precedential force in State v. Dyer, supra, and in State v. Baldwin, supra. The duties of the Justice having since been somewhat clarified by Rule 12, we are now more convinced that DiPietrantonio is not controlling. In Baldwin we carefully analyzed the respective policy considerations relating to rules as to venue and those as to jurisdiction. Although our decision in that case made it unnecessary to rule on the standard of proof as to venue, we explained at length our belief that the gravity of the effect upon the judicial process, and upon a defendant's rights, of a factual determination as to jurisdiction far exceeds that resulting from a determination as to venue. While we found the standard of proof for the issue of jurisdiction was proof beyond a reasonable doubt, we now believe that proof by a fair preponderance of the evidence comports with the lesser gravity of determinations as to venue. It is important to remember that in Baldwin if the Defendants' acts took place outside the territorial jurisdiction of the Maine Courts, there would be no crime at all because if the acts were committed in New Hampshire there would have been no violation of Maine laws. The question here does not involve the State's rights to try the defendant in the Superior Court but only the question of in which county the trial should take place. We feel that the essential rights of a defendant are satisfactorily protected if this issue is decided by a fair preponderance of the evidence.