Commonwealth v. Callahan

GANT, Justice.

This action arises on discretionary review from an opinion of the Court of Appeals reversing the convictions of the respondents because of what that court conceived as prejudicial error during the final argument.

During his argument, defense counsel made the following attempt to define reasonable doubt:

The other thing is the reasonable doubt. Now, since most of you have already been on a jury, you have some idea of what reasonable doubt means. The burden is on the Commonwealth to prove Mr. Callahan and Mr. Pack guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. You may ask yourself exactly what…