Consoling the Lynch Mob

The only real consolation I can offer to the Lynch Mob is the news that the US Military may court martial Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, probably for causing so much trouble between two old allies and giving the Lynch Mob such a golden opportunity for propaganda.

But it may be a form of much needed consolation, or perhaps psychological and emotional relief, for some to insist that Smith's Trial Conviction by the RTC was merely "reversed" by the Court of Appeals and make some dark insinuations as to how that came about. It's a way of saying he is guilty anyway. But this is like in a basketball game, where our team is leading at halftime but then we blame the Referees for cheating and unjustly reversing the outcome of the game when our team gets blown out by twenty points in the Second Half. But the Lynch Mob set itself up for this by intentionally refusing to understand a key concept and principle: the Presumption of Innocence.

The widespread and pitiful angst of the Lynch Mob over "Nicole" and the Court of Appeals decision to acquit the Accused, is due to a confusion over principles and a lack of ethical and intellectual rigorousness in their appreciation of a principle like the Presumption of Innocence.

The Presumption of Innocence of a criminally accused person is overcome in a Judge's mind only when he or she finds "moral certainty" of guilt. It is a subjective phenomenon, this finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, for "doubt" can only exist in the human mind. So when the RTC judge Ben Pozon could not find such reasonable doubt in his own mind and convicted the accused of rape, THAT was not the act of conviction against the accused that the Presumption of Innocence is concerned about. The same level of moral certainty must be found by the three judges of the CA, and the 15 of SCoRP before the Court can ACT to overcome the Presumption of Innocence and deprive the accused, finally of his very freedom, for life. The trial conviction is merely the VOTE of the RTC judge for the Court to uphold the Law and punish the accused for his crime.

Like the Congress passing a law where House and Senate must vote to approve the proposed legislation separately, a conviction in a capital prosecution must be approved by three bodies with increasing degrees of oversight, collegiality and participants: RTC (1 judge); CA (3 judges); (15 judges SCoRP).

If one does not uphold and respect the Presumption of Innocence through all stages of trial and appeal, one ends up embarrassing oneself when something like this happens because now one is left with blaming the judges involved and calling them unjust for "reversing" the Lower Court , or bought out, or sold out--every reason but the truth, that the Lady Justices in this case, could not find moral certainty IN THEIR OWN MINDS that the accused is guilty.

Now this is a matter of legal principle that every citizen and blogger ought to understand. The RTC judge may have found the accused "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" but all this means is that in his own mind he found moral certainty that Smith was guilty. But to say that the Justice System or "the Court" as the Constitution refers to it, has already "acted" to convict Smith is utterly wrong. It is precisely like the claim that the Lower House alone on the strength of numbers can pass a law without Senate approval. No! The RTC has no power to "convict" Smith without the CA and SCoRP doing the same and upon a greater quantum of proof and evidence since the higher courts must consider and uphold also the actions and behavior of the lower courts.

The reason the Lynch Mob was able to arise like a dust devil in a moral desert is that from the beginning the right of the accused to privacy about his identity and personal history was wantonly violated, first by Evalyn Ursua and the Mass Media, who all inconsistently protected Nicole's identify with a fierce devotion but led in calling Smith a rapist and still do.

This delusion was only possible because of the unethical proclivities of the Media, which was willing to abet such hypocrisy and illegal unequal treatment of accuser and accused out of "nationalism."

And they are shameless -- utterly shameless. Even when it has now become obvious to the common tao how wrong these Lynch Mobs are to make Rash Judgment and Racial Prejudice their twin gods, they would churn the waters making wild accusations against the Lady judges who rendered the decision.