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Volume V · Page 965
against humanity connected with the war; this group declared criminal cannot include, therefore, persons who had ceased to belong to the organizations enumerated in the preceding paragraph prior to 1 September 1939." |
| Under the American concept of liberty, and
under the Anglo-Saxon system of jurisprudence, every defendant in a criminal
case is presumed to be innocent until the prosecution by competent and credible
proof has shown his guilt to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt. This
presumption of innocence follows him throughout the trial until such degree of
proof has been adduced. Beyond a reasonable doubt, does not mean beyond a vain,
imaginary, or fanciful doubt, but means that the defendant's guilt must be
fully proved to a moral certainty, before he is condemned. Stated differently,
it is such a doubt as, after full consideration of all the evidence, would
leave an unbiased, reflective person charged with the responsibility of
decision, in such a state of mind that he could not say that he felt an abiding
conviction amounting to a moral certainty of the truth of the charge.
If any defendant is to be found guilty under counts two or three of the indictment, it must only be because the evidence in the case has clearly shown beyond a reasonable doubt that such defendant participated as a principal in, accessory to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, or was connected with plans or enterprises involving the commission of at least some of the war crimes and crimes against humanity with which the defendants are charged in the indictment. Only under such circumstances may he be convicted. If any defendant is to be found guilty under count four of the indictment, it must be because the evidence has shown beyond a reasonable doubt that such defendant was a member of an organization or group subsequent to 1 September 1939, declared to be criminal by the International Military Tribunal, as contained in the judgment of said Tribunal. The defendants are charged in the indictment as officials of the Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt (commonly called the WVHA) of the Schutzstaffeln der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei (commonly known as the SS). The whole sordid history of the SS and its criminal activities has been told in detail in the judgment of the International Military Tribunal (pp. 268-273, Official Edition), and need not be repeated here. In this case, the Tribunal is concerned only with the members of the WVHA, or Economic Administrative Main Office, and its predecessors, the Hauptamt Verwaltung and Wirtschaft, or Main Office Administration and Economy, and the Hauptamt Haushalt and Bauten, or Main Office Budget and Buildings. |
