Ohio Rev. Code » Chapter 2938
Ohio Revised Code

Ohio Rev. Code § 2938.08 (2026)

Defendant presumed innocent

✓ current as of May 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section ORCcodes.ohio.gov (official) Justiaon Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar
Effective:
January 1, 1960
Latest Legislation:
Senate Bill 73 - 103rd General Assembly
PDF:
Download Authenticated PDF
 

A defendant in a criminal action is presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty of the offense charged, and in case of a reasonable doubt whether his guilt is satisfactorily shown, he shall be acquitted. The presumption of innocence places upon the state (or the municipality) the burden of proving him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

In charging a jury the trial court shall state the meaning of the presumption of innocence and of reasonable doubt in each case.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1969–2026 · leading case: State v. Jackson (Slip Opinion), 2014 Ohio 3707 (Ohio 2014).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
State v. Jackson (Slip Opinion), 2014 Ohio 3707 (Ohio 2014). · cites it 2× “In reversing the convictions, the court cited R.C. 2938.08, which the court said “plainly states that a Grand Jury’s power to hear a cause is limited to offenses committed within the county.”
In re Agler, 249 N.E.2d 808 (Ohio 1969). “At the outset, it must be noted that the burden of the state to prove a criminal defendant guilty on all elements of an offense beyond a reasonable doubt springs not from the prescription of a constitution, although it is deeply rooted in our common-law history.”
State v. Stallworth, 2026 Ohio 2242 (Ohio Ct. App. 2026). “Consistent with this principle, it is presumed the court properly understood the evidence of the search warrant and the investigation, not for its value as substantive proof of guilt, but for its limited contextual purpose to explain why law enforcement initiated the…”
Layshock v. Phillips, 639 N.E.2d 510 (Ohio Ct. App. 1994). “First, R.C. 2938.08 requires that in a criminal action, a defendant is presumed innocent until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.