In Hopt v. Utah (1887) 120 U.S. 430, the United States Supreme Court considered an instruction on reasonable doubt given in a murder case in a state court in Utah. The instruction read, in part: "'The court further charges you that a reasonable doubt is a doubt based on reason, and which is reasonable in view of all the evidence. And if, after an impartial comparison and consideration of all the evidence, you can candidly say that you are not satisfied of the defendant's guilt, you have a reasonable doubt; but if, after such impartial comparison and consideration of all the evidence, you can truthfully say that you have an abiding conviction of the defendant's guilt, such as you would be willing to act upon in the more weighty and important matters relating to your own affairs, you have no reasonable doubt.'" (Hopt, supra, 120 U.S. at p. 439.) Noting that "an instruction to the jury that they should be satisfied of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, had often been held sufficient, without further explanation" (id. at p. 440) and that the concept of reasonable doubt "may be, and often is, rendered obscure by attempts at definition, which serve to create doubts instead of removing them" (id. at pp. 440-441), the court observed in passing that the word "'abiding'" in the instruction had "the signification of settled and fixed, a conviction which may follow a careful examination and comparison of the whole evidence" (id. at p. 439).