XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm   
      
   On Thu, 5 Jun 2014 11:47:24 +0000 (UTC), Julian Bradfield wrote:   
   > The entire criminal legal system of English-based jurisdictions is   
   > based on the principle that absence of evidence for is evidence   
   > against.   
   >   
      
   No, it is not. It is based on the principle that it is better to let   
   a guilty person go free than to punish an innocent person.  (Both the   
   US and the UK still pay lip service to this, though in practice both   
   have moved more toward the direction of "guilty till proven   
   innocent", for both the smaller crimes like traffic offenses and the   
   greater ones like terrorism.)   
      
   I am not English, so I can't speak to the details of their legal   
   system, but in the US the verdict is guilty or not guilty, and it is   
   understood that "not guilty" embraces both true innocence and guilt   
   that the prosecution was unable to prove. If the prosecution does not   
   meet the burden of proof, the defendant goes free (in theory) NOT   
   because the prosecution's failure was evidence in his failure, but   
   because our values are that a person cannot be convicted on   
   insufficient evidence, even if everyone believes him guilty.   
      
   --   
   Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA   
                                     http://OakRoadSystems.com   
   Tolkien FAQs: http://Tolkien.slimy.com (Steuard Jensen's site)   
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   FAQ of the Rings: http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/ringfaq.htm   
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   more FAQs: http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/faqget.htm   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)