Law of Evidence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Law of Evidence - Essay Example The burden of proof aims to provide a jury with at least enough evidence to support the position of a reasonable doubt of the guilt of the accused. Therefore what must be determined in this case is whether the defendant will be obliged to adhere to a legal or evidential burden of proof. The leading case in the nature of the legal burden of proof in English criminal law1 is that of Woolmington v. Director of Public Prosecutions2, in which Viscount Sankey stated that â€Å"it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the prisoner’s guilt subject to†¦.insanity†¦.[and also]†¦statutory exception.† Therefore, applying the standard set out in this case, it would appear that the onus of the burden of proof will be placed upon the prosecution rather than on the defence. However, research suggests that this has not generally been the case. A study conducted by Ashworth and Blake showed that the legal burden of proof was placed upon defendants to prove a statutory defence in at least 40% of the Crown court cases3. Therefore, in a criminal case the defendant may likely bear the burden of proof, depending upon the circumstances and the statute (in this case, the Road Traffic Offenders Act of 1988)4. In the recent case of Sheldrake v DPP5 the question of whether driving offences would come under the purview of criminal offences and could therefore constitute a requirement for a legal burden of proof from both prosecution and defense was raised. In arriving at its decision, the Court also took into account the question of whether imposing a legal burden of proof on the defendant and thereby rendering him liable for conviction even when a reasonable doubt existed, would be in contravention of the presumption of innocence that works in favor of every defendant in a criminal case. The question of whether a legal or evidential standard of proof was to be levied required the Court to strike a balance between the