Becky Says...

July 2003

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July 2

I am tired. Not sleepy-tired, but bone and soul weary. The more stressful events of this year have sucked way too much joy out of my life, and it's taking a while to recover.

And having an ass-backwards tropical storm system in the area for several days has not helped matters.

Something else I'm finding tiresome is the excessive coverage of an area murder trial, which began on Monday. No, the law firm I work at isn't involved; its practice areas don't include criminal defense. Of course, all the coverage includes that of people pronouncing the defendant guilty well before the jury hears the evidence. And that bothers me.

People, this is still the land where a presumption of innocence until guilt is proved beyond a reasonable doubt is the standard. Some day, each of the cynical folk speaking out about this defendant may well need the presumption, perhaps not for something as serious as murder, but for some sort of crime. Remember that.

I'll illustrate the point. In 1980 there was an automobile accident near Chapel Hill, in which a graduate student was killed and her brother seriously injured. The first assumption was that the brother had been driving, and blood tests showed alcohol in large quantities in both siblings, who had been to a party.

Although I didn't know either of the siblings, I was peripherally involved in the aftermath of the accident in that I helped plan the memorial service her department held for the young lady. This was at the request of a friend of mine who was in charge of those plans.

Time passed. The brother recovered, but had no memories of anything after the party. He assumed he was guilty of driving while impaired, and of causing his sister's death, for which he had been charged.

Then the investigators discovered several things, the details of which I don't recall completely. But the upshot was the young lady had been the driver. This was proved, beyond any doubt. One of the attorneys in town wrote a nationally-published article about it, outlining the proof, in case these details are sounding familiar.

And if nothing else in the world reminds me of the importance of the presumption of innocence, that one incident will, for all my days.