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BUSH v. STATE12/1/1995
does not have to prove that he is innocent. The law says that for him. The law says that for everyone. . . . The law says everybody is innocent; and that innocence continues throughout the trial of these cases. It continues until or it continues unless the State proves to you beyond a reasonable doubt all of the elements necessary to constitute guilt. So that means that he does not have to say anything. The law says all of that for him; and he continues to be innocent unless or until the State proves to each and every one of you all of the elements necessary to constitute guilt; and the State must prove that to you beyond a reasonable doubt. The burden never shifts to the defendant to do anything. The State must prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt. Beyond a reasonable doubt is a term that addresses itself to your good common sense. And those words as defined by your common sense definition are just as good, if not better, than these legal definitions that us judges and lawyers use; but logically beyond a reasonable doubt means beyond a doubt for which there is a reason, beyond a doubt for which there is a reason, a real reason that you have from that stand to cause you to doubt that he is guilty.
". . . .
". . . The law says that the State must prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt, beyond a doubt for which there is a reason that comes from the stand. Based on all of the evidence, part of the evidence, or lack of evidence do you have a reason to cause you to doubt that he's guilty of capital murder? If you do, then you look to the murder, lesser included. If you have a reason that comes from the stand that causes you to doubt that he is guilty of murder, he'd be entitled to an acquittal. On the other hand, if you consider all of the evidence and you do not have a reason from that stand to cause you to have a doubt that he is guilty of capital murder, then your verdict would be guilty. If you do have a reason to cause you to doubt that he is guilty of capital murder, you can look then to the lesser included; and if you
don't have a reason to cause you to doubt that he is guilty of intentional murder, then your verdict would be guilty of murder. Or if you have a reason to doubt that he's guilty of either capital murder or murder, your verdict would be not guilty.
"Now, the law says the State must prove this guilt to you beyond a reasonable doubt, beyond a doubt for which there is a reason. The law says the State does not have to prove guilt to you beyond all doubt. The State does not have to prove guilt to a mathematical certainty; but beyond a doubt for which there is a reason, not a doubt that you reach for, or grope for, or surmise or conjectural thing, but one that freely and naturally comes from what you heard, all, part or lack of what you heard.
"Under the law your verdict must be based on the facts, based on the truth, not on suspicion. Whatever your verdict is it can't be based on surmise or suspicion or guesswork; but on the truth of the matter."
In reviewing the reasonable doubt instruction in this case, we do so in the context of the charge as a whole. Haney v. State, 603 So.2d 368 (Ala. Cr. App. 1991), aff'd, 603 So.2d 412 (Ala. 1992); cert. denied, 507 U.S. 925, 113 S.Ct. 1297, 122 L.Ed.2d 687 (1993). So long as the definition of "reasonable doubt" in the charge correctly conveys the concept of reasonable doubt, the charge will not be considered so prejudicial as to require reversal. Holland v. United States, 348 U.S. 121, 75 S.Ct. 127, 99 L.Ed. 150 (1954); Haney v. State.
In reviewing the reasonable doubt instruction in the context of the charge as a whole, we do not find that the language complained of could ha
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