Innocent until proven guilty?

Question

I think it's a shame that now a days we have gone away from that. Now it's guilty until proven innocent. I had a brother who went through this and was accused of alleged rape. People in the community came to his house broke windows,sprayed painted his car,my parents recieved threatening phone calls it was a horrible time for all us but we stayed strong. Everyone presumed from the very beginning he was guilty even the police. Well 2 make a long story short the alleged victim ended up confesing the truth and dropping the charges. From then on I have always and i mean always presumed everyone innocent YES even Paris Hilton. Just wondering your thoughts about this topic or is it only me who thinks that way!

Answer 1

Like freedom of speech and separation of church and state, most people don't understand the presumption of innocence until it falls on their heads. This is a basic feature of criminal justice in the civilized world, and yet normal people are so quick to leap to judgment without having the facts. Very sad.

Answer 2

Here's what I think of it. If the suspect has a proven criminal history, then the verbal portion would have been somewhat acceptable. However, the spraypainting of the car, etc. would not have been if he has not been proven guilty of that particular crime. People rarely are accused of or suspected of committing a felony if they are doing absolutely positively nothing wrong. Usually, somewhat like that is not exactly a perfect saint and completely innocent. Sometimes, the world needs to realize that money, "the system," and legal-only mentality do not work if abused. Morals and good judgment are important to a person's life and unfortunately less and less people are adhering to those beliefs. When a person puts money or "the system" above what should be first, everyone involved including the person suffers. In order to live life correctly, priorities must be set straight.

Answer 3

I had asked the same question to my friend lately, and he said that this world should start with "guilty until proven innocent", but I studies criminal law on "innocent until proven guilty", that is why I feel hard to make him understand this term. For the layman, they will think that guilt come 1st, or else, why were the accused be suspected? But at the same time, they do not understand that the criminal law although punish the guilty, it also protect the innocent. As we all know "it is better to free 9 guilty person than to convict 1 innocent". It is hard to explain to the people around you that do not understand the real meaning of the law, but they just look on the surface and started to do their own judgment. But do not worry, I believe that an innocent will always be free no matter what...

Answer 4

You're innocent until proven guilty. By law and by simple common sense and facts. Being proven guilty, you have too prove they did the wrong. Otherwise, you have no proof of anything therefore they're innocent. Being guilty until proven innocent is very ignorant and judgmental.

Answer 5

I am a strong believer in innocent till proven guilty and then you really have to have some facts for me to give a guilty verdict. My brother -in had his house raided for drugs and he has never used drugs nor my sister. Their small child, who is mentally challenged was frightened as well. It was obviously a mistake, and it almost cost him his job and it did end up costing them a small fortune to prove their innocence. There were no drugs or anything illegal found in their home. They raided the wrong address. o one apologized, and the neighbors were looking at hem side-ways. It is sad that Americans have forgotten some of the most important thing that make us a diplomatic country. We are supposed to believe we have "rights, and freedom, and a good justice system to be fair." But if we lose sight of this and just start assuming, then we will all be giving up some of our rights and freedom.America needs to watch out.

Answer 6

Well times have changed. Music has changed, dressing limits have changed, language you use in public has changed, and this method innocent until proven guilty has no longer coexisted in out society. It;s a shame, although yes the olden days had their problems. Things like they didn;t know that smoking could cause Lung Cancer, or that Alcoholism was a disease. Things change in good and bad ways, and the only way you can keep the world at a reasonable state, is just to have confidence in the world. And help as much as you possibly can.

Answer 7

Yeah...yeah

The jury of public opinion is THE most powerful in humankind. Isn't it a shame that the big shots in Hollywood and New York shapes much of that through the media?

I guess it's easy (for some more than others) to imagine the worst about people...freakish behavior makes for better print anyways.

But yeah...it really SHOULDN'T be that way.

Answer 8

I would have agreed with you until I heard what Micheal Vick is being "accused" of. Now you better off thinking people guilty before before being convicted. They are!! Your brother was the exception. He got screwed, but that's 1 outta 10000. The law doesn't even attempt to prosecute without a 90% chance of conviction.
Just my opinion

Answer 9

IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN...

Guilty till proven innocent.
Otherwise, NO ONE would EVER have to post bail or be handcuffed or go to jail before a judge and jury delivered their verdict.

Lee Harvey Oswald, The WHOLE nation wanted to see him dead from minute 1. Except Nixon and George H.W. Bush who helped make it really happen.

We do say "Innocent till proven guilty" but that has never been the case.

And with Bush in accordance with the whole Libby stuff it's
"Innocent when proven guilty!"

When did you wake up and smell the coffee?

Answer 10

It's a sad fact of society. No one should have known, your brother has the Constitutional right to privacy. The 'victim' probably spread the lies around. Pathetic.
Keep your head up!