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To: FL_Native

With regard to most uses of “innocent until proven guilty” they wrongly refer to private individuals and their opinions.

For example: If you as a private individual have formed an opinion about whether a certain football player killed his ex-wife, you are under no obligation - social, professional, or otherwise - to regard him as “innocent”, EVEN IF a court of law has not convicted him.

If on the other hand you are sitting on a jury considering the evidence, then the rules say that you must consider him (temporarily) innocent until you have heard the State and the defense cases and been instructed in the law by a judge.

If, after that, you vote “guilty” you are under no obligation to believe him innocent, EVEN IF your trial ends with the jury 1-11 to acquit and a subsequent jury finds him not guilty.

HTH.


33 posted on 07/17/2018 5:37:33 AM PDT by Jim Noble (p)
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To: Jim Noble
I see your point with regard to opinions.
But, don't we have a moral obligation to wait until the facts have proven guilt before we start punishing someone?
34 posted on 07/17/2018 8:03:13 AM PDT by FL_Native
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