This is a sore spot with me. I often see people get outraged because someone they think is guilty ends up walking free because the police, or the prosecutor, did not follow the rules, or because there just isn’t enough evidence to convict them. What I don’t understand is why the same people simply shrug when they learn about a person that is innocent being in prison.
What each of us has to remember is that the prosecution represents us in our quest for justice. We should understand that, whenever an innocent person is in jail, it is no different than if we had personally locked them in our basement for no reason, Every time the government locks up an innocent person, for whatever reason, every single citizen is morally responsible for it. We are all acquiescing to kidnapping whenever it happens.
Blackstone’s formulation is the most famous expression of the principle that our justice systems is founded on. He said that it is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer. What most people don’t realize is that he actually modified a much older principle that dates back to the days of Abraham. Maimonides is usually credited with writing it down in his compilation of the 613 commandments in the Torah. “It is better, and more satisfactory, to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death.” Maimonides believed that using the death penalty in any case of less than absolute certainty led to a slippery slope that would result in decreasing burdens of proof that would result in people being convicted at the whim of the judge.
If life were only that simple.
We, as citizens, need to remember that whenever an innocent person is behind bars, for whatever reason, every single one of us suffers.
