Joshua 16-20
As I watch our President talk about what he hopes will be the future of this country I'm stuck on one particular chapter in today's reading. It amazes me how often we see things that we consider 'great' about America that come straight from the Bible and how far we've drifted from it. I was curious if the people of this land even knew where some of our 'greatness' came from.
Let's look at just one example, the presumption of innocence. Application of this principle is a legal right of the accused in a criminal trial, recognised in many nations. The burden of proof on the prosecution, which has "to collect and present enough compelling evidence to convince the trier of fact, who is restrained and ordered by law to consider only actual evidence and testimony that is legally admissible, and in most cases lawfully obtained, that the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If reasonable doubt remains, the accused is to be acquitted."
It is a long way from a perfect system (although the Simpson camp may disagree) but it is what it is. So, I was curious what the common opinions were as to where that concept began. I was kind of shocked at the results. Below, a small sample of them.
When will we learn to trust God with the rest of our judicial system? Or our government? Or our country? Or your lives?
Let's look at just one example, the presumption of innocence. Application of this principle is a legal right of the accused in a criminal trial, recognised in many nations. The burden of proof on the prosecution, which has "to collect and present enough compelling evidence to convince the trier of fact, who is restrained and ordered by law to consider only actual evidence and testimony that is legally admissible, and in most cases lawfully obtained, that the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If reasonable doubt remains, the accused is to be acquitted."
It is a long way from a perfect system (although the Simpson camp may disagree) but it is what it is. So, I was curious what the common opinions were as to where that concept began. I was kind of shocked at the results. Below, a small sample of them.
- There is no single "origin" than can be cited for "innocent until proven guilty." The presumption of innocence is an ancient concept, going back at least to classical antiquity, and its first expression is probably lost to prehistory. The concept does not appear in the Constitution or other organic documents simply because it was so deeply embedded in the Anglo-American legal tradition that it went without saying. Even the Magna Carta (1215) implies the concept without spelling it out.
- The Anglo-American reverence for the maxim does pose an interesting conundrum: it cannot be found in Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights of 1689, the Declaration of Independence, or in the Constitution of the United States; and not, I might add, in the works of the great English jurists, Bracton, Coke, and Blackstone. Nevertheless, some scholars have claimed that the maxim has been firmly embedded in English jurisprudence since earliest times.
- It’s originator was a jurist named Paucapalea. He was the first to link this concept to Adam and Eve. Around 1150 he noted that the idea originated in paradise when Adam pleaded innocent to the Lord's accusation of wrong doing. In Genesis 3.9-12, the Lord burst into Paradise and demanded: "Adam, have you eaten?" Adam responded to the Lord’s accusation of illegal apple picking by complaining "My wife, whom You gave to me, gave <the apple> to me, and I ate it." Paucapalea's point is subtle but was not be lost on later jurists. Although God is omniscient, he too must summon defendants and hear their pleas, the subtext of Paucapalea’s commentary clearly implies that if God must summon litigants to defend themselves, mere humans must also summon them and presume that every defendant is innocent until proven guilty in court.
- "It is better that 5, 10, 20, or 100 guilty men go free than for one innocent man to be put to death." This principle is embodied in the presumption of innocence. In 1895, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision in the case Coffin v. United States, 156 U.S. 432; 15 S. Ct. 394, traced the presumption of innocence, past England, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, and, at least according to Greenleaf, to Deuteronomy.
When will we learn to trust God with the rest of our judicial system? Or our government? Or our country? Or your lives?