California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Sanchez, 58 Cal.App.4th 1435, 69 Cal.Rptr.2d 16 (Cal. App. 1997):
In Victor v. Nebraska (1994) 511 U.S. 1, 114 S.Ct. 1239, 127 L.Ed.2d 583 the United States Supreme Court stated the test for a constitutional instruction on reasonable doubt: "... so long as the court instructs the jury on the necessity that the defendant's guilt be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the constitution does not require any particular form of words to be used in advising the jury of the government's burden of proof. Rather, taken as a whole, the instructions must correctly convey the concept of reasonable doubt to the jury." (Id., at p. 5, 114 S.Ct. at p. 1242; internal citations and quotation marks omitted.)
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