Clarity was, at times, in short supply as the state Supreme Court sat down April 13 to consider a trial judge’s unforced attempt to simplify the reasonable doubt instruction given to Connecticut juries hearing criminal cases.
Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue, then presiding in New Haven, sparked controversy in September 2003 when he took it upon himself, in a routine drug possession case, to issue a revised charge that he said juries could better understand. Defense lawyers objected, claiming the unorthodox instruction, in effect, lowered the prosecution’s standard of proof.
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