How Your Right to Presumption of Innocence, Can Lead to Your Wrongful Conviction: Reality v. Theory

The above title is the fulcrum of Dr. Michael Naughton’s argument in his very illuminating article, in the Irish Journal of Legal Studies. He used the United Kingdom as his case study. He formulates his argument this way:

‘ — that the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof on the prosecution to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt act in reality against the interests of those who might be innocent at every stage of the criminal justice process. This is because the presumption, in effect, render suspects of crime passive, which simultaneously justifies minimal resources to the defence, whilst the burden places pressure on, and directs the bulk of the resources to the police and the prosecution to chip away at the presumed innocent status and construct cases from only incriminating evidence that might obtain a conviction, rendering innocent victims vulnerable to wrongful convictions’

He then goes on to say –

‘As a result, the defence side of the adversarial equation, widely thought to be the key safeguard against wrongful convictions, is largely ineffectual as it is resource poor and reliant on police and prosecution evidence that is not suitable for defending against cases constructed from such evidence’

His thesis, at first, appears to be an attempt to stand the law on its head, but the article successfully wrestles with, and strive to undermine centuries of long held legal maxim, that now appears to be, either ‘obsolete’ or, at best obscures the search for justice. Read the full article here and come to your own conclusion(s)http://www.ijls.ie/Articles/IJLS_Vol_2_Issue_1_Article_4_Naughton.pdf