Probable Cause

Being a criminal defense attorney is not the easiest job I could have chosen.  In many ways, it’s the hardest.  I am, unfortunately, an idealist of the worst sort.  I believe in The Law.  I do not believe The Law should be broken.

Why, then, do I “defend criminals”?

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Governor Schwarzenegger today vetoed, among other anti-crime bills, a bill which would have required corroborating evidence for the testimony of jailhouse snitches.

Has the Governor gone soft on crime?

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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. [↩]