Comments on: If someone kills me I want someone to check why http://scotslawstudent.com/2010/02/08/if-someone-kills-me-i-want-someone-to-check-why/ The SLS : Life and trials of learning law in Scotland Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:38:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: scotslawstudent http://scotslawstudent.com/2010/02/08/if-someone-kills-me-i-want-someone-to-check-why/#comment-233 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:01:18 +0000 http://scotslawstudent.com/?p=608#comment-233 I do see your point and I don’t even think a court would want to declare that (no legal system has an “innocent” verdict for this reason) but wanting people involved in suspicious deaths to prove their defence is really just a restatement of the law on criminal defences – the onus of proof doesn’t actually shift at any point but realistically you can’t rely on the prosecution to show your actions were justified. If you say “I only did the actions I did because it was their wish to die and therefore I should not be jailed” then I think you should expect to need to support it (and that the prosecution will seek to disprove it beyond reasonable doubt). Court is just the traditional place to test evidence in murder trials.

On the other hand if someone says I was a threat to children I would expect them to prove why I was. I see it as not presuming guilt in expecting a similar amount of checking to go into allegations of child abuse before the ISA would use them to prevent someone from working. I’m against the idea of giving licences of child safety in the first place because I think it ignores the problem of first time offenders while giving a false sense of security but since we have them I think they should be accurate.

]]> By: Alec http://scotslawstudent.com/2010/02/08/if-someone-kills-me-i-want-someone-to-check-why/#comment-232 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:43:44 +0000 http://scotslawstudent.com/?p=608#comment-232 “Are you a danger to kids? I’m not, honest. Just putting that out there.” Of course you’ll be able to prove that in court? Just as you want (previous post) others to prove that they did not murder someone.
Here was me (old sod) thinking that you had to be proved guilty by the prosecution. But then, after twelve years plus of New Labour education you youngsters think it’s correct that court is where you have to prove your innocence.

]]> By: Iain Nisbet http://scotslawstudent.com/2010/02/08/if-someone-kills-me-i-want-someone-to-check-why/#comment-221 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:40:44 +0000 http://scotslawstudent.com/?p=608#comment-221 Hear, Hear!

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