Q:
I was charged with a relatively serious
offence; can you help me prove my innocence?
A:
If you’ve only been charged with an
offence, it is NOT your job to prove
your innocence.
In early legal times, this rule was expressed
as a brocard (a legal principle
written in Latin): ei incumbit probatio
qui dicit, non qui negat — proof lies on him who asserts, not on him who
denies.
Now, in a contemporary English legal
system, the ‘presumption of innocence’ or the fact that a defendant is ‘innocent
until proven guilty’ is a legal principle that places the entire burden of
establishing guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on the prosecution/state/government.
If guilt has seemingly been
established due to circumstantial evidence like “consciousness of guilt” or direct
evidence like CCTV footage, only then will you and your legal team have to dispute
what has been presented and “prove your innocence”.
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