Guilty Until Proven Innocent

The criminal justice system can be a funny thing sometimes. Not funny in the "ha-ha" sense, but funny in the strange way. It works well in theory, but outside influences (mostly the mass media) morph the process quite a bit in many cases. The old adage "innocent until proven guilty" seems to have been rewritten in recent years- "guilty until proven innocent."

The news media relies on "sensational" stories to stoke its profits. On the one hand, it is rather understandable, because they are a business out to make money, and, let's face it, honestly reported stories are often rather boring to the average couch potato. However, they often take it too far with crime. They can ruin a young person's life, even though they were innocent, and they can free a guilty man merely because of the way in which they report their story.

Case in point: the Duke Lacrosse players. Now, I know that this is a pretty old story, but it makes a good illustration. The media reported this story as a case of white on black, rich on poor violence right from the beginning, even though they had virtually no information to go on. In the end, the young men were exonerated, but the media coverage of their case still left an indelible mark on their lives- almost a "black spot," if you get my meaning.

Then there is the Barry Bonds case. First off, just let me say that I can't understand why the government was involved in the investigation of steriod use- it is none of their business- but that's for another blog. Anyways, the media have constantly been hounding Bonds, always assuming that he was guilty of steriod use. But its not just the media- the public has this mindset of "guilty until proven innocent" as well. I took a look at my local newspaper's editorial page, and some of the letters to the editor were downright hateful. People called for Bonds' imprisonement and expulsion from MLB, assuming that he was guilty.

This new way of thinking can be seen all throughout society, from common crimes to high-profile murders and rapes. In fact, a TV station in my area recently aired a story on a vandalism, reporting that it was done by teen boys, even though the police had only said that they suspected it was done by teens, but had no actual evidence. The long and short of it is that our society has become so addicted to "getting it right now" that they don't even want to wait for the justice system to work before they pass judgement.

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