If the avenger of blood comes in pursuit, the elders must not surrender the fugitive, because the fugitive killed their neighbor unintentionally and without malice aforethought.- Joshua 20:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 16, 2019): Joshua 20

Justice in the culture in which I live depends upon the idea of the presumption of innocence. Sometimes we seem to think that this idea is a recent development in our societies, but it is an ancient idea. Most succinctly, the idea is stated with the Latin maxim ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat (the burden of proof is on the one who accuses, not on the one who denies).

The Presumption of Innocence is not universal, but it appears in some possibly surprising doctrines. It was introduced into Roman Law in the Second Century C.E. by Emperor Antonius Pius, one of the Five Good Emperors who reigned from 96 to 180 C.E. It is also part of Islamic Law with teaching that instructs the followers of Allah to condemn suspicion and teach them to overturn prescribed punishment if it is built around doubtful evidence. But during the feudal governments in the Middle Ages, most of Europe fell back into the custom of the presumption of guilt.

And it is that presumption which seems to reign over our emotions today, even in the culture in which I live. As I write these words, Democratic hopefuls and supporters in the United States are crying out for the impeachment of their President. One of the new class of 2018 members of Congress put that desire in rather vulgar terms earlier this month, as in “We are going to impeach the mother******.” All this before the contents of the Mueller Probe have even been released. It is not an example of the presumption of innocence that is on display by the American Democrats elected to government positions of oversight in the United States, nor is it the presumption of innocence that is portrayed on our evening news; it is the presumption of guilt.

The essential problem with the idea of the presumption of innocence is that it requires us, at least for a time, to occasionally protect the guilty. It requires that we cease to condemn those that we believe to be guilty until after that guilt can be proved in a court of law. And if that guilt cannot be proved, we must be willing to say that we would rather a guilty man go free than to proclaim guilty someone who is innocent (enter the trial of O. J. Simpson).

While the idea of the Presumption of Innocence seems to have entered into Western Law in the middle of the Second Century C.E., the concept is even older. It is found in the Law of Moses and the idea of Sanctuary Cities. It was in these cities that both the innocent and the guilty could be protected until after a trial and a time when the guilt was proved by the accuser. There is no doubt that some guilty found solace with the Sanctuary City network in Israel, but so did many innocents. And unlike our images of the Old American West, Israel was not supposed to be ruled by a frontier justice that meted out its punishment without the benefits of a trial. Every life was valuable, and everyone accused of a crime deserved their day in court.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 21