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Current Events » in reply to What do you mean by innocent?

Not guilty
Mary Anne — (archived)

That's what is meant by "innocent" in a courtroom.

Not "innocent" like a baby, or even like an average working stiff. Though some of the people who have been freed with DNA evidence were average working stiffs who lived in rough neighborhoods and were misidentified because they were of the same complexion as the real criminal.

The whole point of having a government of laws is to do our best to make sure that justice is equally enforced for all the citizens. In our case, we have a presumption of legal innocence. If the government can't make its case convincingly, sometimes the guilty go free. But for the most part, this is preferable than to have it the other way, in which the state is assumed to be correct and the individual has to prove his innocence.

Executing even a criminal for something he didn't do isn't American justice. Executing anyone for someone he didn't do is just plain wrong.

We might have more convictions if we didn't have a death penalty. Jurors, who are mostly just average working stiffs themselves, might have less reasonable doubt if they thought that their decisions might not result in something as irreversable as death. Just in case there was a mistake, or incomplete evidence, or corruption. Did you ever think of that?

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