Acquittals of the Guilty Versus Convictions of the Innocent
Episode: 22 January 2012, Question 1
Why is punishing an innocent man worse than failing to punish a guilty man? English jurist William Blackstone said that "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer." What does this mean, and is it true? Is some higher ratio of wrongly-punished to wrongly-released acceptable?
My Answer, In Brief: Tto convict an innocent person involves the same wrongs as acquitting guilty person, plus more. That’s why proper justice system presumes innocence, as well as limits and corrects errors of by scrupulous objectivity.
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- Duration: 12:22
Relevant Links
- Wikipedia: Blackstone's formulation
- n Guilty Men by Alexander Volokh
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