ENGLISH

The Origins of Reasonable Doubt: Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial

By Prof. James Q. Whitman

Book information

Publisher
Yale University Press
Year
2008
ISBN
0300116004, 9780300116007
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
24 MB (25473289 bytes)
Series
Yale Law Library Series in Legal History and Reference
Pages
288\145
Topic
Jurisprudence Law
Orientation
no
Paginated
no
Scanned
landscape
Time added
2012-11-26 14:30:26
Юридические дисциплины;Уголовный процесс

Description

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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