Ministry of Justice reverses burden of proof in advice to defendants – Pride’s Purge
Tom Pride is absolutely correct – the (rather patronising) “easy to read” guide for defendants at a Crown Court trial, produced by the Ministry of Justice, has reversed the fundamental principle of British justice: That a defendant is innocent until proven guilty.
Whoever wrote this – what were they thinking?
Did they believe nobody would notice?
It is never a defendant’s business to show a court that they did not commit a crime – as one antagonist stated in an early episode of BBC cop show Luther, “You can’t prove a negative”.
Then again, as Tom states: “Mind you – with nearly a quarter of defendants who are sentenced not having a fair trial due to government cuts to legal aid – it may be easier to just presume people who can’t afford a lawyer are guilty and do away with any pretence of justice in UK courts altogether.”
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I clicked on the link “easy to read” guide for defendants it says that it does not exist, have you got the link wrong or have they took it down?
I think they’ve taken it down.
Well they might, for shame!
Well they have to have a guaranteed way to fill all those criminal warehouses, sorry. privatised prisons. The growing privatised prison sector in the USA has occurred at a time of massive growth in prisoner numbers, and a massive rich lobby group ensuring ever more draconian sentencing.
We are probably too intrinsically law-abiding here so they have to find other ways to criminalise the masses, so we can start with poverty wages, sub-poverty benefits, hungry people stealing to eat, and with the expected avalanche of homeless, the recently criminalisation of squatting, the “prove yourself innocent” and lack of fair trials just about gets us in catch up mode.
Does anyone have the figures for capital investment in privatised prisons and capacity to compare with the situation in public housing?