Monday 21 June 2004

Missing the Obvious

Well, I've been falling down on the job. Three of the last four posts have favored subtlety over the obvious. In the most recent harangue about prosecutorial zealotry, I waxed on for five long paragraphs, failing to state plainly:

Innocent people don't belong in jail.

No person's pride is worth denying another person's freedom.

Rules should never prevent justice from applying common sense.

Besides that, I had started the post meaning to get around to questioning how so many victims and police, and to a lesser extent prosecutors and judges (and I hope it's a small minority, especially of those last two) get into a trap of feeling the necessity that somebody's gotta pay for a crime to the point that they talk themselves into believing the accused is guilty even when revealed truth begins to cast doubt and later even suggest otherwise. In some cases it even seems there is a willingness to keep a clearly innocent person behind bars, because to do otherwise would establish an undesirable precedent. Now that is clearly unconscionable! Look for a post in the future on the Tyranny of Precedent. [End of Post]

No comments: