Innocence Lost

With the recent hubbub about John Mark Karr (his middle name has already been included to imply his guilt), I have a new gripe with the American justice system. It is a very simple complaint, but serious nonetheless.

Here it is: we are convicting people before they have even had a trial.

In America, a person is innocent until proven guilty. That is a premise that we have heard since we were kids. It is a part of the basic foundation of law in the U.S. However, this is not really the case today. The media, with the help of the justice system, judges people far before they ever get into the courtroom. That is just plain wrong and should be stopped.

There are numerous examples of this miscarriage of justice throughout history. Raymond Donovan and Richard Jewell are two names that immediately come to mind.

Raymond Donovan was implicated in a political scandal in the 1980s. After being skewered in the media, he was totally cleared later on by the justice system. Upon being vindicated he said, "Where do I go to get my reputation back? Who do I see about that?"

Richard Jewell was held in connection with the bombing at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. His name and picture were divulged and dragged through the mud. It was huge news. Later, he was cleared and charges were never even brought on him during the investigation. He was simply a suspect for a time. He has subsequently sued NBC (reportedly getting $500k in a settlement). He plans on suing other news outlets, but the chances he will succeed in getting more are slim.

Both of these men had their reputations ruined by the media. Of course, we can simply say that the media is doing its job and reporting the truth. I agree that is the case 99% of the time. But when the local anchor says, “alleged killer,” what we all really here is, “killer.” That is not fair.

Don’t get me wrong. This post is not about what the media is doing wrong. The media is breaking the law. The problem is that the law allows the names of people who are STILL presumed innocent to be splattered all over the place along with their pictures and personal data.

When you see the lives that have been demolished by the attention suspects get in the media, it is obvious that this is providing no service to our nation other than to satisfy the John Q. Public’s curiosity. In fact, the disservice to the accused is infinitely more significant than the right of people simply to know who is being accused.

We can say that our founding fathers had many things in mind when they wrote the Constitution – freedom, liberty, and justice are principal among them. But they certainly could not have foreseen a time where the media was so omnipresent and immediate. Had our nation’s founders envisioned our modern world, they surely would have acted on behalf of the innocent.

I would argue that suspects have the inalienable right to privacy until such time that they are found guilty. Until that judge or jury delivers the verdict, no names or pictures, or images should be allowed in the media or be made public in any way.

That is the only way that we can protect ourselves from the overzealous nature of both ambitious prosecutors and journalists.

Innocent until proven guilty and not innocent until accused. It is the true American way.