Newsgroups: tor.general
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!csri.toronto.edu!clarke
From: clarke@csri.toronto.edu (Jim Clarke)
Subject: Re: presumption of innocence
Message-ID: <8901240223.AA03286@gerrard.csri.toronto.edu>
Keywords: Presumption of Innocence & "Criminals"
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
References: <157@aimed.UUCP> <4674@hcr.UUCP> <1989Jan20.201648.20385@lsuc.uucp> <4712@hcr.UUCP>
Distribution: tor
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 89 21:23:30 EST


Quite off on a tangent to the current discussion about recent events
involving the Toronto police, but suggested by it, is my question:

Does the "presumption of innocence" apply to dead people too?  After
all, you can hardly hurt me after I'm dead -- specifically, you can't
deprive me of any of my constitutional rights, since I presumably
don't have any -- so you ought to be able to call me a "criminal"
without incurring the Wrath of the Law.  The dictionary says a criminal
is someone who has committed a crime, so if (for example) I was seen
breaking into a house I could sensibly be described as a criminal.
Certainly I can never be convicted of any crime, since I'm dead,
and it would be silly to go on calling me "alleged"; we don't have to
use formal legal standards of proof to govern everyday speech.

On the other hand, my family and friends and even complete strangers
might think it indecent of you to blame me unfairly for misbehaviour
of which I was not (legally? in everyday English?) guilty.  Can they
apply for legal remedies, like suing you?  Or would that only be if
they themselves have been harmed by your accusations?  If not, do
they have to rely on my biographers to set the record straight?

Can the LSUC crowd set me straight on these fascinating questions?
-- 
Jim Clarke -- Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4
              (416) 978-4058
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