Guilty Trial

In criminal cases, the trial process usually ensure only the guilty are convicted and the process is fair. The reason for this is that a criminal conviction and subsequent punishment would subject individuals to moral denunciation and physical hardship. As per Lord Bingham in Sheldrake v DPP, presumption of innocence is acknowledged as one of the most fundamental principle to this legitimacy. It states that a person is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. In other words, the prosecution bears the burden to prove defendant’s guilt by presenting evidence and proving all the elements of the offence to the satisfaction of the tribunal of fact to the standard of beyond reasonable doubt. If the defendant raise a defence such as provocation,

This principle was mentioned by Lord Simon is of “general application in all charges under Criminal Law”. It could be illustrated in the landmark case of Woolmington v DPP. The trial judge, Swift J placed the burden of proof of lack on mens rea for murder on the accused but Viscount Sankey LC from the House of Lords (HOL) rejected the decision and laid down the basic rule where “throughout the web of the English Criminal Law one golden thread is always to be seen, that it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the prisoner’s guilt”. The rationale behind this traditional approach is that parties should have the obligation of proving their case if they wish the law to assist them. The State should bear the legal burden if it wishes to convict someone of a

His Lordship stated that the exception to the presumption of innocence is only limited to “offences arising under enactments which prohibit the doing of an act save in specified circumstances or by persons of specified class or with specified qualifications or with the licence or permission of specified authority”. This could justify the decision in the case which concerning licence to sell intoxicated liquors in which the court placed the legal burden on the defendant to prove that he had licence even though the register of licences was available to the