Do we really assume everybody who’s arrested is guilty?

The English language is frequently abused and misused, sometimes for effect and sometimes in ignorance. There is one particularly well-established phrase that doesn’t mean what we often think it means: “Innocent until proven guilty.”

What that actually implies is that proof of guilt is guaranteed; it’s just a matter of time.

I sometimes wonder if a lawyer has ever objected to use of this phrase. Speech in a court especially should correctly state facts.

Unless our laws are to be changed, when speaking about an individual to be tried for a crime, what we should be saying is “innocent unless proven guilty.”

This story was originally published November 29, 2017 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Do we really assume everybody who’s arrested is guilty?."