Probable Cause

A large number — no doubt many people — arrested by the police are guilty.  Often enough, they’re even actually guilty of the crime for which they have been arrested.  No matter how much of a true believer one might be as a criminal defense attorney, this much has to be admitted.

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Miami criminal defense attorney Brian Tannebaum writes about people who fear that hiring an attorney will make them look guilty.  I see this, too, although by the time people call me, they’ve usually gotten past that point.

More often what I see is people who become uncomfortable after I tell them to stop talking to others.  In particular, I want them to stop talking to the police.  That’s when I tend to hear, “But won’t I look guilty?”

And my response to them is the same as Brian’s response to people who think they’ll look guilty just by hiring an attorney: “No.  You already look guilty.”

And that’s just one of the reasons innocent people need lawyers.

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If it weren’t becoming a daily event, stories like this one would be difficult to believe.

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In 1895, the United States Supreme Court noted that

The principle that there is a presumption of innocence in favor of the accused is the undoubted law, axiomatic and elementary, and its enforcement lies at the foundation of the administration of our criminal law.¹

The Coffin Court, after stating this principle, pointed out that the concept is so well-established that “[i]t is stated as unquestioned in the text-books” and went on to explain that the presumption of innocence can be traced back to ancient Greek and Roman law and even to the book of Deuteronomy.²

So why has the United States Department of Justice decided to officially abandon the principle?

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1. Coffin v. United States, 156 U.S. 432, 453 (U.S. 1895). [↩]
2. Ibid. [↩]