Innocent Until Proven Guilty
Steve Blow, in The Dallas Morning News Metro blog, criticized Dallas City Council candidate Brint Ryan "for trying to beat his many speeding tickets by using the old request-a-trial-and-hope-the-cop-doesn't-show-up technique." Trey Garrison defended Ryan:
"But a defendant in a criminal case, faced with charges from the state, should be free to use every avenue to defend himself. And we should never forget -- innocent until PROVEN guilty."Certainly, I agree with Garrison that a defendant has the right to defend himself. That doesn't automatically make it the right thing to do, however. "Innocent until proven guilty" is how the state views a defendant. The defendant himself knows whether or not he’s guilty of, say, speeding. If he's innocent, then he should fight the charge. But, if he’s guilty, he ought to own up and pay his fine. Exploiting the system to escape the consequences is not justice. And all of us ought to be interested in justice, even when we are the ones on the wrong side of the law.
4 comments:
But what about the right to not incriminate yourself? Be it coercion by force or coercion from "social obligation" no one should be compelled to plead guilty. If you know the state cannot, or through its own broken mechanism, will not prove its case against you, you have no obligation to make the case for the state against yourself, IMHGDO.
I'm not for compelling anyone to plead guilty. I'm for people taking responsibility for their actions. Of their own free will.
This is the difference b/t what is legal and what is ethical. Sure, he has every legal justification to do whatever he can to get out of it. But, morally, if he knows he committed the crime, he should pay his ticket.
The banks, wall-streeters and people acted "within" the law. Doesn't mean it was ethical.
I'm on the same page with you, Sharon, ... in general. But in any individual case, like that of Brint Ryan, I can't be sure whether he thinks he committed a crime or not, no matter what he might say in public. It would be wrong to assume everyone charged with a crime is guilty. But many are, and I wish more of them would take responsibility for their poor choices.
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