Reply #40: The INNOCENT??? [View All]

[Devils Advocate NZ]

I have read your posts in this thread, and it seems to me that your argument, asserting an equivalency between minimums and maximums, is flawed because it does not take into account the principle that are embodied in our Constitution, which places protections for the innocent far above the need to protect citizens from crime.

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't sentences handed out to the GUILTY?

So how does reducing the sentences for the GUILTY protect the INNOCENT?

If you are talking about wrongfully convicted people, then the length of the sentence is irrelevant - after all a single day spent in prison when the person is innocent IS WRONG. Add to that the fact that there are APPEALS processes which are designed to ensure the innocent are not convicted wrongfully, and your argument makes NO sense.

If you are complaining about the number of INNOCENT people who are imprisoned, then you should be campaigning to have changes to the way people are found guilty, not how they are punished once they are found guilty.

Yet, you try to make out that I don't know what I am talking about! Bah!