Presumption of Guilt [LWN.net]

Presumption of Guilt

Posted Oct 14, 2006 17:26 UTC (Sat) by kevinbsmith (guest, #4778)
In reply to: Presumption of Guilt by zenaan
Parent article: Hans Reiser arrested

To save others the pain of struggling through the poorly-written UPMART.org site:

The story is from Australia. The woman was accused of driving a car that was not registered (as opposed to driving without a driver's license). She claims the car was registered at the time. Normally this minor offence would result in a small fine if proven. Because she was unwilling to give up driving until the trial, she was held in jail for almost a year while awaiting trial.

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Presumption of Guilt

Posted Oct 15, 2006 9:34 UTC (Sun) by zenaan (subscriber, #3778) [Link]

When she was released, there still had been no trial. During her entire imprisonment, she had had no trial, and no conviction.

I agree with the principle that, at least in the case of a small matter ('summary offence'), there should be a presumption of innocence, before trial and before conviction has occurred.