Legal Definitions - guilty

Definition: Guilty generally means committing a crime or being responsible for it. In a criminal case, guilty means the admission by a defendant that they have committed the crime they were charged with, or the finding by a judge or a jury that the defendant has committed the crime.

Examples:

• John was found guilty of stealing a car.
• The defendant pleaded guilty to the charges of fraud.

These examples illustrate the definition of guilty as being responsible for committing a crime. In the first example, John was found guilty by a judge or jury, meaning they determined that he committed the crime of stealing a car. In the second example, the defendant admitted to committing the crime of fraud, making them guilty of the offense.