Court of Original Jurisdiction:
The court first authorized to recognize a case, hold trial, and render a decision is called the court of "original jurisdiction." All Supreme Court cases are heard on appeal from lower courts, and the cases always begin in the court of original jurisdiction.
Reversible Error:
While a harmless error might not change the outcome of a case, when an appeals court determines that a lower court committed a serious error which may have affected the outcome of the case, or which violated the defendant’s Constitutional rights, the lower court’s decision will be reversed.
Preponderance of the Evidence:
The standard of proof in most civil cases requires that there be more evidence for than against, or that the winning argument is more probable than not. This entails some sense of weighing the evidence based on the relative importance of the various pieces of evidence presented in a case.
Thus far in Criminal Procedure, we have discussed rights stemming from the Fourth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment. Although the Constitutional provisions have not always been explicit, and even when explicit, have required interpretation by courts, the rights and privileges discussed thus far, have always been founded in the Constitution.
The requirement that the prosecution prove beyond a reasonable doubt every element of a crime in order to convict a defendant is no exception. The burden of proof imposed on the prosecution and the presumption of innocence granted every defendant are based on the "Due Process" Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.