Hate to break it to you, but stories aren’t evidence. They’re stories. Morbid or not, bad or not, until someone has their day in court, we’re supposed to presume them innocent. I’m not saying we can’t have opinions, but acting on those opinions is dubious at best.
This does not mean we dismiss the accuser. They deserve to have their day in court, to give their evidence and have their claims taken seriously at every step of the way.
Hitler died before he could be tried. Does that mean he is presumed innocent?
Trick question, you’re falling for semantics. “Innocent until proven guilty” really is “legally-innocent until court-proven legally-guilty”, which is the only avenue the state has to imprison someone.
What it doesn’t mean is “you’re not allowed to have an opinion and/or act on it until the accused has gone to court”. The court of public opinion works independently from the court of stuffy judges in wigs. Sometimes it’s wrong, but that doesn’t mean it’s always wrong nor that it shouldn’t exist. OTOH the legal courts very often fall short of delivering a verdict for a bunch of reasons, many quite bad (victims don’t want to relive their traumas for months, cops are uncooperative, court system is backed up, legal definition of rape is unprovable, etc.).
Hate to break it to you, but stories aren’t evidence. They’re stories. Morbid or not, bad or not, until someone has their day in court, we’re supposed to presume them innocent. I’m not saying we can’t have opinions, but acting on those opinions is dubious at best.
This does not mean we dismiss the accuser. They deserve to have their day in court, to give their evidence and have their claims taken seriously at every step of the way.
The two things are not mutually exclusive.
Hitler died before he could be tried. Does that mean he is presumed innocent?
Trick question, you’re falling for semantics. “Innocent until proven guilty” really is “legally-innocent until court-proven legally-guilty”, which is the only avenue the state has to imprison someone.
What it doesn’t mean is “you’re not allowed to have an opinion and/or act on it until the accused has gone to court”. The court of public opinion works independently from the court of stuffy judges in wigs. Sometimes it’s wrong, but that doesn’t mean it’s always wrong nor that it shouldn’t exist. OTOH the legal courts very often fall short of delivering a verdict for a bunch of reasons, many quite bad (victims don’t want to relive their traumas for months, cops are uncooperative, court system is backed up, legal definition of rape is unprovable, etc.).