Taming the Presumption of Innocence
Richard L. Lippke
Abstract
This book provides an account of the presumption of innocence in criminal law and procedure. It maintains that the presumption is a vital component of the proof structure of criminal trials. Trials in which the accused are presumed innocent, the burden of proving their guilt is on the government, and the standard of proof is exacting, constitute rigorous tests of the government’s accusations against persons. Such a test is one to which the most basic rights of persons entitle them as a precondition of just punishment. However, the book defends the controversial thesis that, outside of the crim ... More
This book provides an account of the presumption of innocence in criminal law and procedure. It maintains that the presumption is a vital component of the proof structure of criminal trials. Trials in which the accused are presumed innocent, the burden of proving their guilt is on the government, and the standard of proof is exacting, constitute rigorous tests of the government’s accusations against persons. Such a test is one to which the most basic rights of persons entitle them as a precondition of just punishment. However, the book defends the controversial thesis that, outside of the criminal trial, the presumption of innocence makes little sense. There is no substantive human right to be presumed innocent; even the vaunted procedural right of accused persons to be presumed innocent is better understood in terms of a nonpresumption of their guilt. In place of a broad and ill-defined presumption of innocence, the book urges other remedies to counteract the tendencies of the criminal law to overpunish and of its officials to deny their susceptibilities to error.
Keywords:
presumption of innocence,
criminal procedure,
criminal trial,
legal punishment,
nonpresumption of guilt
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780190469191 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190469191.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Richard L. Lippke, author
Professor, Indiana University, Bloomington
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