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felipec  unbelief  1yr ago (felipec.substack.com)   Edited 1yr ago   2908 thread views

not-guilty is not the same as innocent

felipec.substack.com

In many discussions I'm pulled back to the distinction between not-guilty and innocent as a way to demonstrate how the burden of proof works and what the true default position should be in any given argument. A lot of people seem to not have any problem seeing the distinction, but many intelligent people for some reason don't see it.

In this article I explain why the distinction exists and why it matters, in particular why it matters in real-life scenarios, especially when people try to shift the burden of proof.

Essentially, in my view the universe we are talking about is {uncertain,guilty,innocent}, therefore not-guilty is guilty', which is {uncertain,innocent}. Therefore innocent ⇒ not-guilty, but not-guilty ⇏ innocent.

When O. J. Simpson was acquitted, that doesn’t mean he was found innocent, it means the prosecution could not prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt. He was found not-guilty, which is not the same as innocent. It very well could be that the jury found the truth of the matter uncertain.

This notion has implications in many real-life scenarios when people want to shift the burden of proof if you reject a claim when it's not substantiated. They wrongly assume you claim their claim is false (equivalent to innocent), when in truth all you are doing is staying in the default position (uncertain).

Rejecting the claim that a god exists is not the same as claim a god doesn't exist: it doesn't require a burden of proof because it's the default position. Agnosticism is the default position. The burden of proof is on the people making the claim.

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The Scottish legal system has the verdict of not proven, though reformers seem to be trying to get it abolished.

Under Scots law, serious crimes are heard in a Sheriff Court, and there is a third possible verdict that the jury can return: Not Proven. Both Not Guilty and Not Proven verdicts result in the acquittal of the accused. The Not Proven verdict implies that the jury believed the accused to be guilty but did not think the prosecution made their case beyond reasonable doubt.

The Not Proven verdict is a unique feature of Scots law, however, it might not be part of Scots law for much longer.

I agree it should be abolished. It should not matter what the jury thinks beyond what is proven, at least not in legal proceedings. Only whether or not the prosecution established certain facts and supported them with enough proof. Jury's personal opinions should play as little role as possible. Of course, there's no way to exclude it completely, but at least we shouldn't pretend there can be case where the jury knows The Truth and not only looking at the prosecution's work and decides if they did convincing enough job or not. It is a very rare occasion that the jury would be able to actually know what happened beyond the case made by the prosecution, so ideally only two verdicts should be possible - either convincing enough (called "guilty") or not convincing enough (called "not guilty"). "Not guilty" is "not proven" - it can't be anything else, as the jury aren't clairvoyant, just as "guilty" only can mean "proven" - in both cases, we should recognize the limits of our system and fallibility of it, and accept that's the best we can do. Adding more states to it means we're pretending there's some higher knowledge we could use but somehow we don't. But where that higher knowledge would come from?

Isn’t that what a jury does? Evaluate the evidence and make a judgement call?

Assuming Scotland uses normal standard of beyond reasonable doubt it seems to me not proven is where you’d find guilt on a more likely than not standard but hasn’t been established at the highest standard.

Yes, and if the call is "not enough proof" then the verdict is "not guilty". Not "maybe guilty as hell, but we are letting him off on technicality". "Not guilty" and that's it. You can not throw a power of state at a person, have this power to be unable to prove the guilt and still have the person to bear the stain of the accusation without any ability to clear oneself.

It matters to other people whether the evidence shows that the defendant is innocent or fails to show that he is guilty. We don't want to imprison someone accused of rape unless we are reasonably sure he is guilty, but a woman might want to avoid being alone with him unless she is pretty sure he is innocent. Similarly for many other crimes.

whether the evidence shows that the defendant is innocent or fails to show that he is guilty

That's the same thing. If it fails to show they are guilty, then they are innocent. At least as far as legal system is concerned. All the rest can be done on Twitter, that's what it's for.

a woman might want to avoid being alone with him unless she is pretty sure he is innocent

That's not a task for a legal system, and it can not reasonably perform it. Moreover, putting such task on it would make it very easy to permanently stain somebody's life with an accusation that is impossible to refute - if I say you're a rapist, and the court says "there's no proof but we're not 100% sure - who knows what happened there, we weren't there" then how you prove you're not? You can't sue the court for being not sure and demand them to make up their minds. And there's no process to make them sure. So you are now "possibly rapist" forever, even though there's absolutely no proof anybody could find of it.

That's the same thing. If it fails to show they are guilty, then they are innocent.

No, they're not. That's the whole point of the article. The legal system considers a person who has been acquitted to not be found guilty, which is why the jury renders the verdict quite literally "not guilty".

In the eyes of the law, it is the same. Every legal consequence is the same. Of course, everybody can have their own opinions - but that is no longer the domain of the law. That's my whole point - if we let the law talk about something that is beyond the lawful processes, we are asking for trouble.

In the eyes of the law, it is the same. Every legal consequence is the same.

And yet every legal resource out there claims they are most assuredly not the same.

Would you be able to support your assertion with some quotes from the said resources?

Just google: "not guilty" versus "innocent":

Cornell Law School:

As a verdict, not guilty means the fact finder finds that the prosecution did not meet its burden of proof. A not guilty verdict does not mean that the defendant truly is innocent but rather that for legal purposes they will be found not guilty because the prosecution did not meet the burden.

MacDonald Law Office:

Being found “not guilty” doesn’t necessarily mean you are innocent. Instead, it means that the evidence was not strong enough for a guilty verdict.

Court Review:

While in lay usage the term ‘not guilty’ is often synonymous with ‘innocent,’ in American criminal jurisprudence they are not the same. ‘Not guilty’ is a legal finding by the jury that the prosecution has not met its burden of proof.

The Associated Press:

Not guilty does not mean innocent.

But the reality is that no amount of evidence is going make you accept you were wrong, is there?

My sister served jury duty last year and would have quite liked this option.

Apparently, the prosecution made a complete hash of the case. Their best evidence was that someone the defendant knew ended up in possession of the stolen goods. Since they were trying him for assault during the original theft, this was not sufficient.

My sister did have heated discussions about burden of proof with other jurors. The defendant likely committed that crime, but the prosecution was either too inept or lazy to address the object level.

I believe it went to “mistrial,” rescheduled for a new date, and the judge expressed her disappointment in the professionals involved.

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