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Comment on How does employing a rapist not constitute an unsafe work environment for female employees?

Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Important note: in the US people are not found “innocent,” they are found “not guilty.” It may seem pedantic but it’s important to remember that a lack of a conviction is not evidence that they didn’t commit a crime, only that a jury believed there was enough doubt in the evidence to decline to find them guilty.

This is especially important to remember in rape cases, where evidence is difficult for outsiders to determine and a trial result of “not guilty” doesn’t necessarily mean a rape didn’t happen or that the defendant didn’t commit it.

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Morcyphr@lemmy.one ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Similarly, “not guilty” does not necessarily mean “guilty, but we couldn’t prove 100%”. So, a lack of conviction is not evidence that they did commit a crime, as you’re implying. This is especially relevant to rape cases.

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- Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Not sure how you got that out of my comment which was in reply to someone talking about people being found innocent rather than not guilty.
  
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  - Morcyphr@lemmy.one ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You’re stating that “not guilty” doesn’t mean “innocent.” I’m adding that “not guilty” doesn’t always mean “guilty but got away with it.” Which part confused you?
    
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    Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    So, a lack of conviction is not evidence that they did commit a crime, as you’re implying. This is especially relevant to rape cases.
    
    Guess I’m confused where I said anything remotely like that.
    
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- ParsnipWitch@feddit.de ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Why is this “especially relevant to rape cases”?
  
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snooggums@kbin.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If they didn't do it they get the same 'not guilty' verdict, so what is the recourse for someone who was falsely charged. I am specifically thinking of the US where there are a lot of black men falsely convicted of violent crimes they did not commit because of racist eye witness testimony and prosecutors who want higher conviction rates.

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- Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  A false accusation or conviction isn’t even necessarily because of ill intent from anyone involved (although let’s be real, cops almost always have ill intent); people can just be wrong about who raped them. Eye witness testimony is bad in a neutral setting and horrible in an emotionally charged setting, and if for some reason DNA evidence is unavailable then unfortunately victims are left with nothing but their (human, fallible) eyewitness testimony of what happened.
  
  Intentional false accusation is a whole other ball game, and is already a crime.
  
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