Reasonable Doubt
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
"The term 'reasonable doubt' is almost incapable of any definition which will add much to what the words themselves imply."
Mitchell, J., in 38 Minn. 439.
The most commonly quoted definition is that of Chief Justice Shaw: "An abiding conviction to a moral certainty" (5 Cush. [Mass.] 320); but it has been held that "moral certainty is not equivalent to an absence of reasonable doubt" (47 Ala. 78). It has been defined by negation as not a vague or whimsical doubt (34 Iowa, 520), not a mere conjecture (36 Ala. 211), etc. A practical definition upheld in some jurisdictions is that it is such a doubt as would cause a man to hesitate before acting in his own most important business concerns (10 Minn. 407); but this has been disapproved (1 Dak. 452), and, in general, no affirmative equivalent has ever been given which has not been disapproved in another jurisdiction,, REASONABLE PART.
In old English law
That share of a man's goods which the law gave to his wife and children after his decease.
Pitzh. Nat. Brev, 122.