Holding the State to Its Burden of Proof in Trial
If you find yourself facing criminal charges for a crime you did not commit, and the State refuses to dismiss the charges, then a jury trial becomes necessary. It is also necessary for you to hire a defense attorney who will hold the State to its burden of proof: Guilt Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.
Guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is the highest burden of proof in the American civil and criminal justice systems. But prosecutors like to tell potential jurors that reaching this burden of proof is no big deal; that every day in courtrooms across Texas and the U.S., jurors reach consensus and find defendant’s guilty of all kinds of crimes; that if this were an insurmountable burden then no one would ever be convicted of a crime. Prosecutors try to downplay their burden in order to lower the burden of proof, in order to make their job easier.
If the State’s prosecutor goes down this path of minimizing their burden of proof, you want to make sure you’ve hired the right defense attorney who will make the State do its job. The right defense attorney will be ready to tell these same prospective jurors: From before the allegation of the criminal charges, and continuing until the Judge allows the jurors to deliberate, the accused person is entitled to the Presumption of Innocence. What this means is that the accused person is actually innocent until 6 or 12 jurors unanimously decide that the State has met its burden of proof and find that the accused person is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This also means that it is the State’s job to do all the work: call witnesses, put on evidence, and make arguments to the jury. And because of the presumption of innocence, the accused person (hypothetically) can sit back and do absolutely nothing while the State tries to meet its burden.
If you have hired the right defense attorney, that attorney won’t just sit back and let the State’s prosecutor tell the jurors that this will be a piece of cake. Your defense attorney should be champing at the bit to stand up in jury selection and tell the jurors that you are innocent, and demand that each person selected for your jury believes in your innocence up until the Judge allows them to deliberate.
If the State won’t dismiss its charges and you’re facing the prospect of a jury trial, don’t gamble with your freedom: make sure you’ve hired the best attorney who is prepared to make the State do its job, and who will fight for you in trial.
