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The Presumption Of Innocence

The Presumption Of Innocence image
Parent Issue
Day
13
Month
July
Year
1883
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Blai'kwood' Magazine. We pride oursclves in England on tbc dignity, decorum and fairncss with whieh trials aro condncted. In France and on the Continent gencrally they are said to dogeneratc tú a wiangle between the Jiulge and the accused. The trial of Guiteau for the murcler of President Gartield did not prepossess Englishmen in favor of the criminal courts of America, though probably that trial cannot be accepted as a fair specimen of what is usual across the Atlantic. No such scènes would be possib'e in an English court. Guiteau declared that he must be deemod as innocent as any man in court until convictal, and raved and reared ad libitum. With us the notion of a prisoner being presumed to bc innocent merely njeans that hc is entitled to the benefit of an}T reasonable doubt, and the trial practieally is to see if such doubts really exists He is at least three-fourihs on the wwy to conviction before he -pleads. Tftke, for instance, a man on trial for murder. A Coroner's jury have investigated and found him guilty. A magistrate has investigated and decided to commit. A Grand Jury on their oatlis have found a true bill. The presumptioo of innocence, in the face of thoso three decisions, in whioh at least twenty-iive men, probably more, have concurrcd, is only another wayof saying that the proof must be beyond reasonable doubt. John Bright, "alleged inventor of a oelebrated disease of tho kidneys," is the way an Omaha paper speaks of the English Quaker slatcsman. More Oirish. - "Not hang our murtherers. He jabers! I should like to see tho spalpeen that murthercd mt

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News