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Lifting The Veil Of Mona Lisa: A Multifaceted Investigation Of The "Beyond A Reasonable Doubt" Standard, Zhuhao Wang, Eric Zhi
Lifting The Veil Of Mona Lisa: A Multifaceted Investigation Of The "Beyond A Reasonable Doubt" Standard, Zhuhao Wang, Eric Zhi
Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law
For a long period of time, the golden standard in judicial fact-finding of criminal cases in the United States and many other countries has been the “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” (BARD) standard – every person accused of a crime is presumed to be innocent unless, and until, his or her guilt is established beyond a reasonable doubt. The BARD standard’s undergirding principle is one of error distribution, where wrongful conviction of the innocent is a much greater wrong than failed conviction of the guilty. This concept was famously expressed by the English jurist William Blackstone in 1760s: “It is better …