Reply #40: certainty

[thesquanderer]

re: "But there definately cases where people are certain about guilt"

If a case goes to trial (as opposed to a plea deal or an admission of guilt), there is a defense. Sometimes the defense doesn't deny that the person commited the crime, but they claim some rationale... self-defense, diminished capacity, whatever. In these cases, the jury decides how "reasonable"--i.e. believable--the explanation is based on the evidence at hand... but there is rarely going to be certainty. You not only need to be certain the person did it (which may or may not be in dispute), but also be certain that any mitigating explanation is false. Not easy.