To be convicted of a crime in the United States, a person must be
proven guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt." But what is reasonable
doubt? Even sophisticated legal experts find this fundamental
doctrine difficult to explain. In this accessible book, James Q.
Whitman digs deep into the history of the law and discovers that we
have lost sight of the original purpose of "reasonable doubt." It
was not originally a legal rule at all, he shows, but a theological
one. The rule as we understand it today is intended to protect the
accused. But Whitman traces its history back through centuries of
Christian theology and common-law history to reveal that the
original concern was to protect the souls of jurors. In Christian
tradition, a person who experienced doubt yet convicted an innocent
defendant was guilty of a mortal sin. Jurors fearful for their own
souls were reassured that they were safe, as long as their doubts
were not "reasonable." Today, the old rule of reasonable doubt
survives, but it has been turned to different purposes. The result
is confusion for jurors, and a serious moral challenge for our
system of justice.
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