Legal Question in Criminal Law in Pennsylvania

Reasonable doubt definition in various states

I am a senior in high school, and recently was awarded a full scholarship to Carnegie Mellon University. My longer term goal is to attend law school.

I am trying to locate the various definitions that our fifty states use for their reasonable doubt standard, and I am wondering if you might have such a compendium or might know where I could find such a collection.

I do not have much money but would appreciate any help that you might be able to offer.

Thank you in advance and best regards,

Amber--name removed--

Pittsburgh, PA


Asked on 2/14/04, 1:09 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Re: Reasonable doubt definition in various states

Mr. Rosenberg is right on the money. Where you have trouble finding a states model jury charges online, I suggest doing a Google search for "XX definition of reasonable doubt" and/or "XX definition of reasonable doubt standard"

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Answered on 2/16/04, 6:02 pm
Joel Rosenberg Stark & Stark

Re: Reasonable doubt definition in various states

The easiest way to find them is to look at the jury charges for each state. The charge is what is read to a jury by a judge during a trial to instruct them on the definition. Many states have them available on the internet. New Jersey is one of them. Go to the New Jersey courts online page and look around a bit and you will find them. You are of course looking for criminal instructions, not civil.

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Answered on 2/14/04, 1:17 pm


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