Protect legal system

Suppose you have been accused of a crime. Should you have to prove you did not commit that crime or should the accuser or their representative have to prove you committed the crime?

In our justice system, as in that of most other countries, one might commit a heinous crime and that act be recorded and reported on all forms of local and national media. However, if the perpetrator does not confess, that person is only an alleged perpetrator. Stated in another way, you are innocent until it is proven you are guilty in a court of law.

The failure to conclude someone is guilty of a crime does not mean they are innocent. In fact, what the “innocent until proven guilty” part of our common-law justice system attempts to guarantee is that, as responsible citizens of our nation, we had rather let the guilty go free than punish the innocent.

The legal system we have, flawed as it may be, is designed to protect all of us, and we should make any amount of effort needed to protect it.

One reason our freedom of speech is so precious is that one is welcome to voice, in a non-threatening way, an opinion about the outcome of any event. That right extends to conclusions reached as a result of some legal action. Moreover, that voice is welcome to raise itself to a crescendo level via demonstrations. Even if we vehemently disagree with that outcome, when all is said and done, one should ask if one wants to return to when lynching was our solution to perceived failures of our system of justice.

If not, then we must agree to peacefully disagree, recognize no system works perfectly, and protect our legal system that guarantees one is innocent until proven guilty. PHILLIP TAYLOR

Fayetteville