People v. Ah Sing

The court below, after instructing the jury that the defendants on trial upon an indictment for murder are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, proceeded as follows: “A reasonable doubt is that state of a case, which after the entire comparison and consideration of all the evidence, leaves the minds of the jurors in that condition that they cannot feel an abiding conviction, to a moral certainty, of the truth of the charge. The doubt must not be vague and shadowy. Absolute certainty is rarely attainable and is never required. If the evidence is such that a man of prudence ivould act upon it in his own affairs of the greatest importance, then there cannot remain a reasonable doubt within the meaning of the law." The defendants excepted to so much of the instruction as is italicized.

I do not understand the Attorney-General to claim in argument here that the latter portion of the instruction can be supported. In People v. Brannan, 47 Cal. 96 , the jury had been told that they might convict, if “satisfied of the guilt of the defendant to such a moral certainly as would influence the minds of the jury in the important affairs of life." We held the…