C O M P A R AT I V E S T U D Y of safer path theology.”203 He explains that Paine’s arguments should be understood in the context of the moral theological literature, resisting excessive radicalism such “that qualms of conscience must not be allowed to prevent the satisfactory workings of public justice.”204 Morano and Shapiro disagree as to the significance and the effect of the jury instructions in this case. Morano argues that the requirement of reasonableness was advanced by the prosecution to lower the degree of proof and make convictions easier.205 In contrast, Shapiro argues that the reasonable doubt qualification of the standard of proof was no real departure from the earlier standard of conscience or doubt, but rather a natural consequence of the application of contemporaneous thinking.206 Sheppard attempts to reconcile Morano’s and Shapiro’s points of view, concluding that both of them might be correct: “The instruction both accords with the new language of the times and contrasts with the language of the defence, to the benefit of the state in jury deliberations.”207 Thus, “the prosecutor’s use of the argument both was designed subtly to help the prosecution’s case but accorded with contemporary views about the nature of judgment.”208 The Old Bailey Cases The next series of reasonable doubt cases discussed by scholars are the cases from the Old Bailey in the mid-1780s. The transcripts are published in The Old Bailey Sessions Papers. Langbein refers to The Old Bailey Sessions Papers as “probably the best accounts we shall ever have of what transpired in ordinary English criminal courts before the later eighteenth century.”209 However, The Old Bailey Sessions Papers are not complete transcripts of everything that was said in court. The details of defence cases and legal arguments were regularly omitted.210 The first published collection of trials dates back to 1674; early editions were just short summaries of the trials that were most interesting to the general public.211 The reports of the eighteenth century trials are more detailed and include judges’ comments summing up the evidence. These comments are the most important for analyzing the standard of proof because judges would occasionally provide guidance for the jurors to follow during their deliberations. Whitman, p. 194. Whitman, p. 193. 205 Morano, p. 514. 206 Shapiro, Doubt, p. 20-22. 207 Sheppard, p. 1192. 208 Sheppard, p. 1192. 209 Langbein, Adversary Criminal Trial, p. 271. 210 See online edition of The Old Bailey Sessions Papers 1674-1913, available at http://www.oldbaileyonline. org (last accessed 14 April 2016). 211 See The Proceedings of The Old Bailey, The Value of the Proceedings as a Historical Source, available at http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Value.jsp#reading (last accessed 14 April 2016). 203 204 43