NCJ Number
84921
Journal
American Criminal Law Review Volume: 20 Issue: 1 Dated: (Summer 1982) Pages: 1-30
Date Published
1982
Length
30 pages
Annotation
The Supreme Court's decision in In re Winship, which constitutionalized the beyond reasonable doubt standard, affected virtually every issue litigated in criminal trials. The Court's failure in Winship and its progeny to provide coherent criteria to apply the standard has created uncertainty in the lower courts.
Abstract
The authors conclude that the lack of meaningful guidance for lower court decisionmaking has produced inconsistent and chaotic applications of the Winship standard. The authors urge the adoption of a unified analysis of evidentiary devices that would consider the impact of the evidentiary device on the defendant's case, whether the device implicates a fact which the state is constitutionally required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and whether the device is an accurate judicial comment on the evidence. (Publisher abstract)