Events of recent weeks have prompted discussions in the media regarding the presumption of innocence and how that idea applies to persons found acquitted, or not guilty, at trial. These discussions have revealed that many Americans believe that a defendant found not guilty in court is truly “innocent” and therefore could not have committed the crime in question. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Origins in American Law

It is a common misconception that the presumption of innocence is embodied in The Constitution of the United States. In fact, “innocent until proven guilty” appears nowhere in that document, although several of the Amendments, taken together, do guarantee due process. The concept of presuming innocence goes much farther back, embodied in centuries of English case law. It did not make its first appearance in American law until the case of Coffin v. United States, 156 U.S. 432, decided by the United States Supreme Court in 1895.

The Coffin case dealt with a lower court judge who had refused to instruct a specific set of jury instructions regarding presumed innocence. The Court found that it was insufficient to simply explain proof beyond a reasonable doubt; juries must be told on whom the burden of proof falls. According to the Court, this principle is vital because, in the words of famous jurist William Blackstone, “the law holds that it is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.”

• Jurist Who Co Founded Memphis Tennessee

• Nonjuristic

• Roman Jurist Gaius

  noun 1. a.d. c110–c180, Roman jurist and writer, especially on civil law. 2. Caius

• Government Jurist

• Co Founder Of Memphis Jurist

  MEMPHIS, TN - By 2013, the Memphis City Schools system will no longer exist. A federal judge ruled Monday, August 8, 2011, that the merger between Memphis City ...