ORANGE COUNTY'S "BEST" OR "TOP-RATED" DUI DEFENSE LAWYERS RATED BY SUPER LAWYERS, ORANGE COUNTY'S "TOP-RATED" DUI DEFENSE ATTORNEYS
What this basically boils down to is this: circumstantial evidence can be powerful; but it is insufficient to convict if the evidence is such that the jury was led to the wrong conclusions. As this passage demonstrates, there are "dangers" that lie in circumstantial evidence as even an honest man or woman sitting as a jury may, in times of emotional stress, draw false conclusions from startling circumstances and this human weakness has resulted in convicting those who were in fact innocent of the crime or crimes for which they were charged.
THE CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE - SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE JURY INSTRUCTION
Section 224 of the Jury Instructions, entitled: “Circumstantial Evidence: Sufficiency of Evidence”, reads as follows:
Before you may rely on circumstantial evidence to conclude that a fact necessary to find the defendant guilty has been proved, you must be convinced that the People have proved each fact essential to that conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt.
Also, before you may rely on circumstantial evidence to find the defendant guilty, you must be convinced that the only reasonable conclusion supported by the evidence is that the defendant is guilty. If you can draw two or more reasonable conclusions from the evidence, and one of those reasonable conclusions points to innocence and another to guilt, you must accept the one that points to innocence. However, when considering circumstantial evidence, you must accept only reasonable conclusions and reject any that are unreasonable.