Avoid Witch Hunts

 

I remember listening to the song “What’s Your Mommas Name” over the radio when I was eleven and, along with thinking about marrying Tanya Tucker one day, I thought it was a nice tune but unrealistic because the courts would never convict someone without any evidence and mature adults are not that quick to jump to the conclusion that a man is a child molester. It didn't take long to realize I was wrong, and since then I have known men to serve time without any evidence against them, and everywhere I've been I've come across "mature adults" that are quick to jump to conclusions and make me think of that song.

A real eye opener for me was when a friend was convicted of sexually molesting a little girl in the 1990s, spent a couple years in prison and was going to be on probation for fifty years and a registered sex offender the rest of his life, but was eventually exonerated and won a lawsuit against the State of Florida because there was no evidence, and the case should have never gone to court. (The girl’s grandmother was in the same room with him and the girl when the molestation was supposed to have occurred.) It was a little shocking to realize that in an emotionally charged case a prosecutor can persuade a jury to return a guilty verdict without any evidence.

A severe crime, such as child molesting, should have a severe penalty. But we need to be careful to make sure we are requiring hard evidence for a conviction before we attach a severe penalty to the conviction. Otherwise, we create a situation in which emotionally charged cases easily change a fair system of justice into a witch hunt in which the accused is presumed guilty until proven innocent and innocent people are punished instead of the guilty.