What ever happened to “innocent until proven guilty”?
Posted by: Justin Scott in Campus News, CrimeLook, I don’t want to be “that guy”, but how are we all forgetting what happened at Duke University last fall? I shouldn’t have to remind anyone about that case, but I will. Three innocent students were prematurely indicted by an out-of-line rogue attorney, and his manipulation of evidence captivated the entire country while completely destroying the lives of those kids.
And though this is to an admittedly smaller degree, at least on the national scale, it seems like the same kind of case. It’s the accused’s word versus the word of the accuser. How can we arbitrarily side with the accuser just because the media has so willingly done so? And as for using Facebook as a way to identify someone who attacked you in a flash in the dark of night? Please.
Despite what this looks like, I’m not taking sides, but it seems I’m about the only person remaining neutral. As far as I can remember, people in the United States are always innocent until proven guilty, and nothing at all has been proven. While hateful slurs have no place in our society, due process does, and we need to heed the lessons learned from the Duke case and wait this out before we destroy the potentially good name of one of our own.
-Justin Scott, staff writer
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Ah, but remember that justice in DC is always political, and about as fair as the tribunals during the French Revolution.
Cynthia McKinney and Patrick Kennedy can do things that would get a student fines and time in rehab or the slammer, but they are allowed to skate.
A rich white male preppie from Duke can be harassed and then knocked down and then make threatening gestures (defensive?) at his assailants and call them names, and the DC Attorney assigns a task force of 17 to prosecute him (all while DC is having a ‘crime emergency’).
The verdict always depends, as in France, on what the galleries are shouting.
I don’t know if in this current case the accused is guilty or not; but I do know that there will be tremendous pressure on the DC Attorney’s office
to make sure he doesn’t get the same treatment McKinney and Kennedy got.
What the Attorney’s office and the local police need is a ‘victims of false accusations support unit’. Don’t think we’ll be seeing one of those soon…
Thank God people are finally talking in a balanced, sensitive and thoughtful manner. All of us, as Americans, need to continue to support our legal system..Innocent before proven guilty and “ONE NATION …UNDER GOD ..WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!!! That would be victims and perpetrators…… By the way Where do the falsely accused fit in…..????
Rabbitize, I’m not sure what Duke preppie you’re referring to, but I do like your French revolution analogy because if that’s the case, then the Voice is Marat.
Cynthia McKinney lost her seat in Congress, and Patrick Kennedy DID go to rehab. What did Cynthia McKinney do that was so awful, though?