The best way to answer this question is to quote a jury instruction that best sets out in our opinion, the concept of reasonable doubt in a criminal case:
The burden is upon the prosecution to prove by the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt every material and necessary element of the offense charged against the defendant. It is not sufficient that you may believe his guilt probable, or more probable than his innocence.
Suspicion or probability of guilt, however strong, will not authorize a conviction, but the evidence must prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
You shall not speculate or go outside of the evidence to consider what you think might have taken place, but you are to confine your consideration to the evidence introduced by the prosecution and the defense and unless you believe, upon a consideration of all the evidence before you, that guilt of the defendant has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt as to every material and necessary element of the offense charged against him, then you shall find the defendant not guilty.
The burden resting upon the prosecution to prove guilt of the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt does not require that such guilt be proven beyond every imaginable, conceivable or possible doubt, but only beyond a reasonable doubt .
You must limit your consideration to the evidence introduced, and you are not to go outside the evidence to hunt up doubts, nor must you entertain doubts that are speculative or conjectural. If, upon a consideration of all the evidence, you are satisfied of the guilt of the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt, then you shall find him guilty
If you, or a family member has been arrested in Cincinnati, call our 24 hour emergency number at 513 333 0014 for an aggressive criminal defense team.
