Doubt in Favour of the Defendant, Guilty Beyond Reasonable Doubt 10th513 11th514 BRD BRD You willing to rely and act upon it more important of your own personal affairs You willing to rely and act upon it without hesitation most important of your own affairs 513 514 Power demonstrates the wide range of language tolerated in US Federal Courts in defining reasonable doubt: • What “you” (as a juror) personally: o Would be “willing to rely and act” upon in the “most important of your own affairs”; o Would “not hesitate to rely and act” upon in your “most important decisions”; o Would be “willing to rely and act upon it” in the “more important of your own personal affairs”; o Would be “willing to rely and act upon it without hesitation” in the “most important of your own affairs”; Or: • What would cause a “reasonable and prudent man” to “hesitate and pause” in the “graver and more important transactions of life”; Or: • What would cause a “reasonable person”: o To “hesitate to act in a “transaction of importance and seriousness”; o “Not hesitate to rely and act upon” in the “most important of his own affairs”; o “Not to hesitate to rely and act.” Or: • What would cause a “reasonably prudent person” to “hesitate” in their “more important affairs.” Perhaps the only consistent element across the Circuits515 after Victor is that the Courts will assess the constitutional validity of an impugned United States v. Smaldone, 485 F.2d 1333, 1347-48 (10th Cir. 1973). COMMITTEE ON PATTERN CRIMINAL JURY INSTRUCTIONS, DISTRICT JUDGES ASS'N ELEVENTH CIRCUIT, PATTERN JURY INSTRUCTIONS – CRIMINAL CASES § 3, at 6 (1985), cited with approval in United States v. Daniels, 986 F.2d 451, 456 (11th Cir. 1993). 515 The US Federal Courts of Appeals (or Circuit Courts) are the intermediate appellate courts of the US federal court system.  A Court of Appeals decides appeals from the district courts located within its federal judicial circuit. There are eleven judicial circuits, which are not bound by decisions of the other circuits. 513 514 110

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