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1. smnrch+(OP)[view] [source] 2022-02-08 19:44:37
Do you think it is wrong for a person to believe OJ was guilty of the murder he was accused of? If a person decides to keep their distance from their new neighbour OJ and not treat them with neighbourly kindness and open arms because of that murder, would you admonish them for treating OJ differently for something he was never found guilty of in the court of law?
replies(3): >>mardif+H3 >>aeturn+x5 >>a_e_k+8c
2. mardif+H3[view] [source] 2022-02-08 20:00:38
>>smnrch+(OP)
No, because in the case of OJ we have more than just what the prosecution (in this case, the DoJ) accused him of doing. My point isn't that you can't make your own judgment or that only court decisions are valid source sources of truth. What I'm saying here is that any opinion/analysis we can make at this stage are basically entirely based on the prosecution, since we don't have any other facts to go by.

Unless you already knew the people involved or we have some third party sources, we are basically just believing the side that only has 1 goal; showing how guilty the people they prosecute are. How could that mean anything else but assuming guilt?

(And honestly I think that personal feelings towards a person are very often good enough to make a personal judgment on guilt, but we don't even have that here! I'd bet most of us never heard of them before today)

3. aeturn+x5[view] [source] 2022-02-08 20:08:18
>>smnrch+(OP)
It's not wrong for a person to believe anything and act accordingly. It's not even wrong to argue that we should not describe the accused as innocent (as long as you acknowledge what the official approach suggests before ignoring it). We are all morally free to treat OJ however we like (and everyone else is morally able to judge us for it).

What is wrong is for media organizations (which can be as small as independent reporters) to break expected traditions w/o acknowledging it. It suggests that this case is different (and again, it might be different) implicitly, which isn't ethical. You should either work within the prevailing assumptions of the system, or explicitly defy them in a principled maner.

4. a_e_k+8c[view] [source] 2022-02-08 20:36:44
>>smnrch+(OP)
This is why I like the Scottish "not proven" acquittal verdict as an intermediate third option between "not guilty" and "guilty."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_proven

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