MOJO
  • Home
  • About
  • News
  • Contact
  • Comment
  • Testimonials
  • Donate
3990
September 4 2018

Double Jeopardy

Euan Comment

 

“It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer” – William Blackstone, “Commentaries on the Laws of England” 1765

Blackstone’s Formulation, by which the 18th Century English jurist expressed the principle that the courts must always err, as err they must, on the side of the accused, remains to this day a fundamental backstop of any civilised system for the administration of criminal justice.

This doesn’t mean that the guilty should go unpunished.   It means, simply, that the protection of the rights of the accused must be real and meaningful.   Real enough, and meaningful enough, that an individual accused is protected from arbitrary, or speculative, or repeated prosecution by the all-powerful state.   If this means that offenders occasionally evade justice, Blackstone says that’s a price worth paying.   We agree with him.  It’s called democracy.

Here at MOJO it has always been, and it remains, our position that no-one should be prosecuted twice for the same offence.  The term “double jeopardy” can be traced to the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which directs that no-one shall “be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb”.   The principle has been longer recognised on this side of the Atlantic – for around 800 years – and, although no longer absolute, it remains an important feature of our law.   There are very good reasons why this should be so:  it keeps the state honest, it provides the individual with protection from oppression, it redresses, to some degree, the inequality of arms between state and citizen, and it upholds the sacred function of the jury.

Where the state, with its limitless resources, knows that it doesn’t get a second chance it will present its best case at trial.  It will refrain from speculative or malicious prosecutions, and it will only subject the individual to the emotional and financial ordeal of prosecution where it has reason to be confident of conviction.   The state, despite its resources, cannot engage in repeated assaults on the individual on grounds of malice, populism or politics.

Where our social contract with the state involves our submission to the state’s power to prosecute and punish us, our protections against abuse of that power should, and must, be robust.  Where is the innocent accused to find peace when the state’s power is unchecked?

It’s called democracy.

MOJAS – Sheffield An Anatomy of an Injustice

Related Posts

Alasdair Flett2

Comment, News

MY SUMMER WORKING WITH MOJO AND THE CJP

Alasdair Flett, one of our student volunteers, has recently published in the newsletter of the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic an interesting article, in which he discusses his experience working with MOJO. We greatly value our close relationship with the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic and, in particular, its Criminal Justice Project. For several years […]

Megrahi

Comment, News

Lockerbie Appeal Refused

In a decision that surprised no-one, the Appeal Court on Friday (15 January) refused the latest appeal against the conviction of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi for the Lockerbie bombing in 1988.   Mr Al-Megrahi died in 2012. The case had been sent back to the Appeal Court by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, who were satisfied that […]

MOJO1

Comment, News

Happy New Year

This time last year we published a New Year message that looked forward, with hope and confidence, to 2020.  The year we got, in the event, wasn’t the year we had hoped for.   No-one’s was.  As we look back now on the year that was, we recognise the extraordinary challenges it presented.   And we recognise […]

Latest Tweets

  • We reproduce this article by Samuel Osbourne from the Independant 30 May 2019. mojoscotland.org/carbon-credits…
    4 years ago
  • We reproduce here a worrying piece from the Guardian from 29 May 2019 by Sian Cain about austerity and it’s potenti… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
    4 years ago
  • There is a debate on going regarding the not proven verdict in Scotland. In an article from the Times, Gordon Jacks… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
    4 years ago
→ Follow us

Archives

Search

  • Home
  • About
  • News
  • Contact
  • Comment
  • Testimonials
  • Privacy Notice
© Miscarriages of Justice Organisation (Scotland) 2023 - Company No SC239555 - Registered Charity No SC033820 The work of MOJO is financially supported by the Scottish Government