Our Constitution

Last week a women in Florida was found not guilty of murdering her daughter, and today a  baseball player had his trial dismissed because the prosecution showed the jury a film clip the judge had earlier ruled to be inadmissible. In both cases I’ve heard people complain that the individual was “obviously guilty” and they are upset at what they see as a miscarriage of justice.

I disagree.

The laws of our country say that everyone is innocent until proven guilty and that in the absence of proof the accused must go free. In the Florida case it appears that the prosecution had little more than circumstantial evidence to present, in fact they could not even specify the cause of death. While I personally feel the mother is an individual I could nether trust or like the fact remains that the state was unable to prove to 12 jurors that she had done the crime she was charged with.

In the case of the ball player that was charged with lying to Congress the judge had specifically said that a particular film clip could not be introduced as evidence yet the prosecution showed it to the jury anyway. The judge could easily have dismissed the case with prejudice but instead chose to stop the trial and order a future rehearing.

In both cases the decision was based on the Constitution that provides each of us a fair hearing if we are accused of a crime. And I would much rather have an occasional miscreant walk free than further weaken the very document that describes and enforces the rule of law we live under.