Innocent until proven guilty unless your name is Jenkins
August 10, 2010I have no idea whether or not Sion Jenkins killed his foster daughter, and neither really does anyone else except of course Jenkins himself.
But his earlier conviction has been overturned, on the basis that his guilt cannot be proven, and he is out of jail. But his attempt to secure compensation for wrongful imprisonment has been quashed.
I don’t know about most people, but I have a problem with that. If we have a principle of “innocent until proven guilty” then we should apply it fairly and consistently. With Jenkins’s conviction overturned he should be in the same position as anyone else who has not been found guilty of that crime. Suspicions or speculation about his involvement, or even a collection of facts which are suggestive of guilt make no difference so long as they do not add up to proof.
He was not proven guilty so should be treated as being as innocent as the next man. And that means he should not have been imprisoned and, accordingly, should get compensation for wrongful imprisonment.
The Ministry of Justice’s position that compensation should only be paid when the victim of wrongful imprisonment is shown to be “clearly innocent” strikes me as insupportable. Under the “innocent until proven guilty” principle Jenkins is as clearly innocent as he needs to be for damages to be payable.
In legal terms either Jenkins is guilty or he is innocent. Unlike in Scotland, there is no half-way house. So whatever anyone might think or suspect, the judicial system should either find the evidence to convict him or it should pay him his compensation.
Not doing so sets a dangerous precedent which could be readily abused to deny compensation in future cases of miscarriage of justice. The burden of proof to find someone guilty in the courts is a tough one, but the question of whether anyone is “clearly innocent” seems to be determined at the whim of the Ministry of Justice.
Did he go to prison? YES
Should he have gone to prison? NO
Whose fault was it he went to prison when he shouldn’t have? THE JUSTICE SYSTEM
Should he be compensated? YES
That really is all there should be to it in every case, regardless of anyone’s suspicions and opinions.