Coffee Talk

 What do guilt, innocence and justice really mean?   

The current debate in Singapore results from the reversal of an April 2007 conviction of schoolteacher William Ding for molesting his male students. 

Judge of Appeal V.K. Rajah’s basis for acquitting Ding a year later in April 2008 was that the alleged victims’ accounts and evidence were inconsistent and contradictory.   

The Attorney-General’s Chamber’s position on Rajah’s judgment, however, is that “as long as a reasonable doubt remains, the accused is entitled to be acquitted…” - meaning Rajah is right - BUT, it also added that “not being able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that A is guilty does not mean that he is innocent.  He may be guilty in fact, but innocent in law because the evidence was not there.”   

Coming from the AGC, it has far reaching implications.  Think of what it means to justified parties - past, present and future.  All an acquittal means then, is that they get away with punishment? 

Try standing in the truly innocents’ shoes.  Imagine how mentally and emotionally painful such a view is to them.  First, they had to deal with the tremendous anguish of having been wrongfully accused. And then, after all the bruising court battles, they are not necessarily innocent. 

Perhaps that’s precisely what the Cantonese proverb “Washing with water does not rid the spot” means. 

So, I have to agree with Rajah’s rebuttal of the AGC.  “ It is not helpful for suggestions to be subsequently raised about the accused’s ‘factual guilt’ once he has been acquitted.  To do so would be to undermine the court’s finding of not guilty and would stand the presumption of innocence on its head, replacing it with an insidious and open-ended suspicion of guilt that an accused person would be hard-pressed ever to shed, even upon vindication in a court of law.” 

Most of us support the Yellow Ribbon Project.  We agree it is good to give the convicted a second chance in life.  Why can’t we also extend the same sincere act of love to those who have been acquitted?  All it takes is simply not treating them with suspicion. 

(Read also the post on limitations of money. I discussed how money can’t buy the best things in life, innocence being one of them.  The message is to treasure innocence while you enjoy it.  You’d never know – all it takes is for some baseless ill intended rumor to spread.  And we all know how easily that can be achieved.)

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