Burdens

In the previous post, there was a comment about the "reasonable doubt" standard, which I had planned to expand upon before becoming distracted. In a criminal prosecution, the burden is on the prosecution to prove that the accused committed the act. The standard that is applied is that the action must be proved "beyond a reasonable doubt." It's a corollary of "innocent until proven guilty."

It's a standard I believe very strongly should apply to anyone, whether granny getting her first speeding ticket at 95 or the vilest career criminal. I think that because I want that same standard for me, if I ever need to appear in court, so I am not willing to deny it to anyone else. Anyone who claims there are "good people" and "bad people" and such protections are only out there to coddle criminals needs to spend some time reading about mistaken identifications and other errors in our system which could happen to any one of us when arrested.