Martin v. Ohio

Martin v. Ohio
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 2, 1986 Decided February 25, 1987
Full case name	Earline Martin, Petitioner v. Ohio
Docket nos.	85-6461
Citations	480 U.S. 228 (more) 107 S. Ct. 1098; 94 L. Ed. 2d 267; 1987 U.S. LEXIS 933
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices William J. Brennan, Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell, Jr. · John P. Stevens Sandra Day O'Connor · Antonin Scalia
Case opinions
Majority	White, joined by Rehnquist, Stevens, O'Connor, Scalia
Dissent	Powell, joined by Brennan, Marshall (in full); Blackmun (as to Parts I and III)

Martin v. Ohio, 480 U.S. 228 (1987), is a criminal case in which the United States Supreme Court held that the presumption of innocence requiring prosecution to prove each element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt only applies to elements of the offense, and does not extend to the defense of justification, whereby states could legislate a burden on the defense to prove justification. The decision was split 5-4. The decision does not preclude states from requiring such a burden on the prosecution in their laws.