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Originally Posted by revots33
Um it's not a hypothetical. You realize acquaintance rape with no witnesses is a common crime, right? But feel free to handwave it away, since it doesn't fit your fantasy-land world where every verdict is cut and dried and no innocent person can ever be found guilty.
It's pretty obvious you posed a loaded hypothetical (and you posed it as a hypothetical, you cited no actual case) so you could call people out for victim blaming or disrespecting victims, blah blah blah. You're transparent, revots. And now you're playing dumb.
I agree, sexual assault cases tend to be very tough due to their nature. In a civilized society however, our criminal justice system absolutely demands and requires strong evidence to overcome the presumption of innocence. To require anything less is to return to witch hunts.
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Yeah, no one endorses a bias towards putting innocent people away. Our system is built on the concept of presumption of innocence, and placing a heavy burden on the state to prove guilt. It does not ensure infallibility. Hence the whole "beyond a reasonable doubt" part, that none of you seem to get.
Did you even read what fraley wrote? That's exactly what he endorsed. I'll find the exact quote shortly but he said that he would prefer a system that convicts innocent people as collateral damage if it means more guilty people are convicted because it's safer that way. Oh yeah, and you supported his comment. How safe and grateful do you think the innocent on death row feel?
Fraley's exact words:
"I believe society in general is safer if a few innocent people get convicted over a lot of guilty people being set free."
Right now the system is supposed to be biased in favour of the accused. As Dean Strang so eloquently said, "All due respect to counsel, the state is supposed to start every criminal case 'swimming upstream'. And the strong current against which the state is supposed to be swimming is the presumption of innocence." Fraley's own words, in plain english above, support skewing this bias towards putting "some" innocent people away so long as it means less guilty people go free. But please, engage in verbal acrobatics to twist in some other way.
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No I am in favor of a system that balances the rights of victims with the rights of the accused. Like I said, there is no perfect system. Our system aims to strike that balance. Good luck finding a better one.
You're right. We have nothing to learn from any other system in the world.
Last edited by 28renton; 03-17-2016 at 01:01 AM.