Innocent until proven guilty by beccaria - Essay Example

This means that nobody is guilty until the case has been proved beyond reasonable doubts. Thus, a person remains innocent until there is concrete evidence that the person is guilty. Sir William Garrow actually conceptualized the phrase. He suggested that suspected criminals should be tried properly in the court of law before they are convicted of the crime. He further posited that the panel of jury must properly ascertain the fact that a criminal committed a crime before being judged. Garrow theorized that the group of jury must proof each case beyond reasonable doubt, or an alternative, depending on the criminal justice system that is prevalent in the country.

The notion of innocence came against the backdrop of a popular assumption that most criminals are often accused wrongly and sentenced for offenses that they did not commit in the first place. This was the opinion of a French jurist, Jean Lemoine. He maintained his position by seeking for anonymity in the examination of criminal evidences in the prosecution of the defendants. The stand of the jurist was to guarantee legal protection for the accused. The jurist further maintained some set of rules that serve as guidelines towards the examination of criminal trials. . Several countries had incorporated this legal doctrine into their legal codes.

In the European community, it has been encoded in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom that any individual charged with a criminal offense is innocent until a criminal law or tribunal convicts such person. The doctrine was indoctrinated into the American legal system via a Supreme Court ruling between Coffin and the United States of America. The American lower court declined this ruling by not recommending the principle to the jury that, criminals are not to be termed as criminals except if they have been tried in a court of law.

Although, the principle was rejected by the lower court, but a judge reminded the jury of the principle that no man is guilty except found guilty after proper investigation of the crime that the accused is being indicted for has been carried out. There was a controversy at this point, with the lower court introducing the doctrine of “beyond a reasonable doubt” in the determination of a case. Beccaria was a reformer that reformed the legal system in Europe and the world over. He was against the torture of criminals in the process of cross-examination for the proper discharge of legal proceedings.

He viewed torture as a violation against the doctrine that no individual should be sentenced until proven guilty in a law court. He refers to this as the right of power (Beccaria 17). He posited that criminals like every free man are liable for their own actions and are in charge of their actions and can be discouraged by the threat of being punished. He said that the only justification for torture of criminal