Guilty until proven Innocent

So some of you guys might be familiar with the video game series Ace Attorney, you are a defense attorney where the levels are the trials you are trying prove that your client is innocent. It is very clear that the court system in the video game (I am using the very first game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney from now on) is guilty until proven innocent. It is evident because the prosecutor are fabricating lies and sometimes actually tampers with evidence in order to get the result he wants. Furthermore, the game is made in Japan, a country that is notorious for being guilty before innocent (near 0% crime rate, yet near 100% conviction rate). When you find something off in either the prosecutor's statement, witness testimony, you press the objection button and this music plays, indicating that you are closing to winning the trial.

I am bringing up this game because in A Lesson Before Dying, it is a similar situation. It is clear that the court system is guilty until proven innocent. There is actually no proof that Jefferson is guilty of murder except the fact that two white men found him with a whiskey bottle and 3 people dead. But that is not a strong enough proof, because in the 1940s forensic evidence definitely existed (first used before the 20th century), and it should show that since Jefferson did not touch the guns, he was incapable of murdering anyone. It is very interesting why the defense attorney did not mention it at all. Maybe it is because he is an court-appointed attorney and not Phoenix Wright, but anyways, guilty before proven innocent is stupid because the prosecutor can exaggerate all he wants and it will not hurt him during a trial.

Comments

  1. LawrenceApril 15, 2019 at 5:49 PM

    I agree. It definitely seemed as if Jefferson really didn't have a chance and I think everyone, including Jefferson and his attorney (who didn't make too great of a case probably because he knew his efforts were futile) knew that. This book took place in the Jim Crow South so accused african americans were already put at a heavy disadvantage, and with Jefferson's misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time there was basically no hope. I think that is why this book focused more on Jefferson "becoming a man" as opposed to the trial. Nice post Massive Peanutbrain!

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