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erulabs • yesterday at 5:33 AM • 7 replies • view on HN

It actually does. You can judge her, but she is not guilty. The more we as a society decide the justice system is just an arbitrary way of deciding who gets punished and not _the_ way of deciding if a person is or is not a criminal the more we slide towards oblivion.

If a person is found not guilty, they are not guilty. To argue otherwise is to undermine the core institution of western civilization.


Replies

lazyasciiart • yesterday at 6:21 AM

Important to note that western civilization is fundamentally ok with the knowledge that the statement issued by a jury or judge does not actually define whether a person is morally, factually or colloquially “innocent”. Disputes may be addressed c/o OJ Simpson and the Central Park 5.

EdwardDiego • yesterday at 10:38 AM

Not guilty doesn't mean innocent. It means "guilt could not be proven", it does not mean "innocence was proven".

Seriously, this is why OJ was found liable for the murder of his wife in a civil case, as they're judged on the balance of probabilities.

And it's why people who have served time, then had a retrial ordered and then found not guilty, can be denied compensation, because decisions on compensation are also done on the balance of probabilities.

So yeah, "not guilty" != "innocent".

robotresearcher • yesterday at 5:47 AM

The finding is ‘not guilty’, rather than innocent. It does not mean the accused is innocent. It means they could not be proven guilty.

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shepherdjerred • yesterday at 6:37 AM

I mostly agree with the idea, but to accept this as an absolute implies our justice system is infallible

zem • yesterday at 9:43 AM

there is no way to argue that without also believing that the millions of people the state has tossed into prison are all guilty, which is really not something that I can do.

quickthrowman • yesterday at 11:22 AM

Not guilty != innocent.

watwut • yesterday at 11:09 AM

No. To argue what you argue is to play pretend stupid.

Court of law with its ability imprison people must have higher standard for the "guilty" decision. That makes it possible for rich guilty people to not be judged guilty.

You are allowed and expexted to use own brain. You can consider people guilty.