#Does acquitted mean not guilty trial#

#Does acquitted mean not guilty trial#

To rectify these misunderstandings, the article recommends a statement to be incorporated into pattern jury instructions at the State and Federal level. If you plead not guilty, your case has to go to trial and the prosecutor has to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. Acquittal: a judgment of court, based on the decision of either a jury or a judge, that a person accused is not guilty of the crime for which he has been. Acquitted: means you have been found not guilty by a court of law in a criminal trial. It simply means that the prosecution either did not have enough evidence to support their charges or that they did not present their evidence in a compelling enough way to convince the jury. Thus, the defense suffers from the jury's misconception of its role. Being found not guilty of a crime or being acquitted does not mean that the court or jury believes you are innocent of the crime. If the jury misconceives its role, the prosecution benefits, since it is much easier for the prosecution to prove guilt than it is to prove not just guilt, but guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. An examination of pattern jury instructions in the individual State courts reveals the same generic type of incorrect and confusing instructions in most of the States.

These instructions misstate the role of the jury to be that of determining guilt or innocence. These instructions misstate the role of a jury in a criminal trial that are hopelessly contradictory, inaccurate, and unclear. If the defense does not put on any evidence, the jury cannot assume that the defendant is guilty simply because they did. A widely used source of pattern instructions for Federal criminal trials, 'Federal Jury Practice and Instructions,' compiled by Devitt and Blackmar, contains instructions on the role of a jury in a criminal trial that are hopelessly contradictory, inaccurate, and unclear. 'Not guilty' is a legal finding by the jury that the prosecution has not met its burden of proof. While in lay usage the term 'not guilty' is often synonymous with 'innocent,' in American criminal jurisprudence they are not the same. Jury members must understand the legal definitions of the terms guilty, not guilty, and innocent, as well as beyond a reasonable doubt.