On The Application Of "Beyond A Reasonable Doubt"

The criminal procedure law which amended in 2012 included “beyond a reasonable doubt” in the criminal proof standard for the first time.The introduction of “beyond a reasonable doubt” is not a reduction of the criminal proof standard in China,but a further explanation of the criminal proof standard in the subjective respect for overcoming the difficulties caused by the over-idealization,objectification,abstraction and lack of operability of the standard of criminal proof in judicial practice.However,since the legislation has not made a clear provision on the connotation of “beyond a reasonable doubt”,the academic circle has not formed a unified understanding,and there is no consensus on the trial habit when “beyond a reasonable doubt” is applied in trials.Therefore,based on the in-depth discussion of the meaning of “beyond a reasonable doubt”,this paper uses the method of case study to analyze specific judicial examples to provide two points for judicial practice to accurately understand and apply “beyond a reasonable doubt”: The one is that to clarify the connotation of “beyond a reasonable doubt”,the key is to understand “reasonable doubt” from objective and subjective judgments.The other is to accurately apply “beyond a reasonable doubt”,which requires the judge to adhere to the principle of verification and proof as the main,free heart evidence as the supplement,grasp the applicable rules of direct evidence and indirect evidence,and form the thinking of "beyond a reasonable doubt" to determine the facts of the case.