Denver criminal defense lawyer / some evidence, yes it's a standard

One of my jobs as a Denver criminal defense lawyer is to know the ins and outs of the varying burdens of proof. Stuff like beyond a reasonable doubt, a preponderance (really just a majority) lr the evidence and probable cause are all terms people have heard. If not in high school civics or something similar, they come up all the time in the popular vocabulary of those awesome law dramas with very serious looking attorneys in very serious looking grey suits deciding very serious things. Anyway, there is one standard that is not like that: the "some evidence standard." Even half way through my training to become a Denver criminal defense lawyer, I frankly did not believe it was possible that something could be proven with basically any piece of evidence.

Here's how it works. The Supreme Court decided that making the state prove much of anything would be bad in prison disciplinary proceedings. Things happen really fast in prison. Even a short delay in the disciplinary process can result in pretty severe harm. Also, counterintuitively evidence tends to be pretty crappy for prison cases. Sure, there are guards everywhere. But pretty much every other potential witness is either afraid for his (I use his here because the vast majority of inmates are men) life or somehow on the take. The chance of getting reliable testimony beyond what the guards say is slim, to be optimistic. Given that the guard's testimony might not be even a preponderance of evidence in a case, meeting a serious burden of proof would be pretty tough. To combat these problems, and because they generally like the state better than prisoners, the Supreme Court implemented the "some evidence" standard for prison cases. It may as well be called the "guard's testimony" standard, since that's basically what all these cases rely upon.

The low standard of proof and serious consequences in disciplinary proceedings is just another reason to hire a Denver criminal defense lawyer who can do the best job fighting your charge.