The Anonymous Widower

The Dead Can’t Enter A Plea Of Not Guilty

The media has already found Jimmy Savile and Cyril Smith guilty, but under British law and in fact in a lot of countries, defendants are not guilty until proven to be guilty. Daniel Finkelstein had a long and measured opinion about this in The Times yesterday. He finishes with a plea that everybody has a fair trial and as he says, not being taken to court in their coffin.

But we all tend to be hard on the dead and their perceived crimes.

In a post yesterday, I was being very hard on the man, who decided to electrify the trains south from London using a third rail. I know design faults are not as serious as child abuse, but I’m not alone in condemning the dead.

December 13, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel, World | Child Abuse, Crime, Death, Design, Jimmy Savile, Justice