Court Opinion

ID: 9492914
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:53:21.524431+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:33.212720
License: Public Domain

HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Of all the rights enjoyed by a criminal defendant, the right to be found guilty upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt is undoubtedly one of the most important. The right ensures that our criminal justice system separates those who are guilty from those who are innocent. See In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 363-64, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970).
To be effective, that is, to fulfill its obligation to separate the guilty from the innocent, the term reasonable doubt must have a comprehendible meaning, one that can be understood by the jury. Therefore, the term reasonable doubt must be defined with accuracy to ensure that it is applied with precision. Without this safeguard, the jury is left to apply its own definition; thus, we risk the possibility that the jury will apply the wrong standard, potentially convicting a criminal defendant on less proof than that required by the Constitution.
Judge Ervin feels that the term reasonable doubt should not be defined because defining the term reasonable doubt “is more dangerous than leaving a jury to wrestle with only the words themselves.” Ante at 699. Thus, Judge Ervin leaves it to the jury to create its own definition, applying its day-of-deliberations “definition to the specific case before it.” Ante at 699. I simply fail to see the logic in Judge Ervin’s approach.
It makes eminently more sense to define the term reasonable doubt in a jury charge as a matter of course, just as district courts typically define other terms such as knowingly, willfully, and intentionally. When the term reasonable doubt is defined we avoid, if not eliminate, the risk that a criminal defendant will be convicted on less evidence than is constitutionally required. This benefit far outweighs any attendant problems associated with defining the term reasonable doubt.
In In re Winship, the Supreme Court explained that any “society that values the good name and freedom of every individual should not condemn a man for commission of a crime when there is reasonable doubt about his guilt.” 397 U.S. at 363-64, 90 S.Ct. 1068. I simply see no way of achieving this laudable goal other than by giving the jury an instruction that cogently and accurately defines the term reasonable doubt. I would, therefore, require one, such as the one approved by the Federal Judicial Center in 1987, as a matter of course. Consequently, I would find reversible error in this case. See Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314, 328, 107 S.Ct. 708, 93 L.Ed.2d 649 (1987).