Paralegal Pages

 The burden of proof in criminal courts and civil courts are two totally different things. In criminal court, the prosecution seeks punishment like incarceration of the defendant, or even death. In the other hand, civil courts are equally powerful in a way but they seek a different type of punishment. Since they deal with private matters, they are more likely to settle things monetarily. Although they might work differently, they seek the same goal. The goal is to punish those who do civil and criminal wrongs to society.

            Criminal courts are a huge part of the court system in the U.S. They work with all those citizens who violate the law. The prosecutors who are in charge of proving that the defendant is guilty, have to make sure that the evidence supporting the case is enough to prove it beyond reasonable doubt. Meanwhile the defendant’s lawyer has to find any leak available to prove the prosecutors wrong. If by any chance the prosecutors can’t prove the defendant’s guilt beyond the reasonable doubt, the defendant will be free to go.

            Civil courts may have many similarities, but it  works differently. As I explained before, civil courts seek monetary compensation while criminal courts seek incarceration or death. For this reason, the burden of proof in civil is less than in criminal courts. In civil courts you only have to prove that the individual was more likely to commit the act than not. If you actually were allowed to put numbers to the burden of proofs it would look something like 50.001% for civil courts and from 73% to 93% for criminal courts. This makes it obvious how different criminal courts and civil courts really are.                                   

Burden of Proof is the onus of producing evidence and also of persuading the jury with the required level of proof.  It is basically an obligation to prove that the allegations which were presented are true and have enough facts to do so.  There is a big difference between the criminal and civil burdens of proof. With the differences between criminal burden of proof and civil burden of proof, they still have their similarities; both must supply sufficient evidence to win the case.

In criminal cases, the burden of proof is often on the prosecutor.  The prosecution has to provide enough factual evidence of the defendant’s guilt and persuade the jury that the evidence presented establishes the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.   Beyond a Reasonable Doubt is defined as “any doubt which would make a reasonable person hesitate in the most important of his or her affairs.”  Beyond a Reasonable Doubt is very important, because the defendant has so much to loose through criminal punishment. For example if the defendant is charged with murder, the prosecutor bears the burden of proof to show the jury that the defendant did murder someone.  Witnesses, autopsy reports, no alibis, etc is some of the evidence that has to be shown to prove the defendant did in fact murder someone.  If the prosecutor fails to do so then they have failed to meet the burden.

In civil law cases, the burden rests with the plaintiff (the party bringing the action).  The plaintiff must prove whatever allegations he included in his complaint in order to win his case.  Burden of proof only requires more likely than not or more than fifty percent believable evidence for it to favor the plaintiff’s. 

         “ You are always going to be innocent unless your proven guilty Beyond a Reasonable Doubt,” have you ever heard this words before?… but of course we are speaking about the Burden of Proof. According to the common law, burden of proof is the obligation to prove allegation presented in a legal action (Burden of Proof 1). This way, the burden of proof is practice in court in three ways, the legal burden, the evidentiary burden, and the tactical evidence.
            First of all, The Legal Burden or burden of persuasion is referred to an obligation that continues on a single party for the remaining of the claim (Burden of Proof 1). “Once the burden has been entirely discharged to the satisfaction of the party carrying the burden will succeed in their claim” (Burden of Proof 1).
            Secondly, The Evidentiary Burden or burden of leading evidence is an obligation that changes among the parties while the hearing or trial is in session. “A party may submit evidence that the court will consider to be proof of some state of affairs” (Burden of Proof 1). This brings a burden of leading evidence on the opposing party to submit evidence that contradict the presumption (Burden of Proof 1).
            Lastly, the Tactical Burden is an obligation comparable to the burden of leading evidence. “Presented with certain evidence,   the Court has the discretion to infer a fact from it unless the opposing party can present evidence to the contrary (Burden of Proof).
            The Tactical Evidence, the Burden of the Leading Evidence, and the Burden of Persuasion, are the three ways that the burden of proof is met in a court of law by attorneys.

Capital Punishment is an execution (death) for a capital offense. The U.S. Supreme Court has vacillated on the application of capital punishment, ruling in the Furman decision (1972) that capital punishment was a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment” in certain cases, and then reinstated it in 1976. New York, which once led the nation in executions, has abolished capital punishment. There is no capital punishment in Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. There have been no Federal executions in more than 30 years. Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, and Arkansas have held the most executions in recent years.  Means of  capital punishment used in the United States including lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, and firing squad. All capital offenses require automatic appeals which means that approximately 2,500 men and women are presently on “death rows” awaiting their appeals or death.

A Capital Offense is any criminal charge which is punishable by the death Penalty, called “capital” since the defendant could lose his/her head (Latin for caput). Crimes punishable by death vary from state to state and country to country. In some American states these offenses may include first degree murder (premeditated), murder with special circumstances ( such as intentional, multiple, involved with another crime, with guns, of a police officer, or a repeat offense),  and rape with additional bodily harm, and the federal crime of treason. A charge of a capital offense usually means no bail will be allowed.