". . . Reasonable doubt does not mean beyond all doubt. It does not mean to a mathematical certainty," she said. "You don't have to be 90% sure. You don't have to be 80% sure. You don't have to be 51% sure."
Nobody objected to the prosecutor's comments at the time, and the jury was left with that definition of the standard of proof before deliberating and finding the couple guilty, the court determined.
"In doing so, ... the prosecuting attorney set the bar far too low, going so far as to argue that something less than a preponderance of the evidence would be enough to authorize the jury to find the Debelbots guilty," Blackwell wrote. "There is no good reason that any reasonably competent lawyer would fail to object to such an egregious misstatement of the law."
District Attorney Julia Slater told the Ledger-Enquirer her office intends to retry the Debelbots, who remain in prison.
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