Criminal Laws

[Roamy]

In our country it is innocent until proven guilty. Many people are released on their own recognizance. In horrific cases where there is damming information then bail may be denied. However in Mexico it is guilty until proven innocent and many innocent people are held in prison until trial. I think this is called "French Law"

In you country what is the law?
guilty until proven innocent
bail or not?

[Dave B]

In our country it is innocent until proven guilty.
Unless you're unfortunate enough to be accused of a terrorism offence, in which case you can be detained for literally years without trial - or even charge. Even over here we baulked at 90 days: if there's not enough evidence after three months to bring a charge then there probably never will be.

So in theory at least the UK has the presumption of innocent until proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt, and adheres to the premise that it's better to have a guilty person walking free than an innocent person wrongly detained.

Scotland has the third option of "not proven" in court cases where there's not enough evidence to convict, but equally no certainty that the accused is definately not guilty.

[F1boat]

In our country on paper it is OK, innocent, until proven guilty, but it is very corrupt, so it really depends on connections and money. Not ideal.

[Firstgear]

Our system is "Innocent, even if proven guilty." :dozey:

[Easy Drifter]

Not quite that bad but close. We seem to have a legal system not a justice system.
Technically it is innocent until proven guilty. Bail is usually given but not always.
We also have the detain in cases of suspected terrorism.
We also had days of pretrial custody counted as 2 or even 3 times before sentencing.
So if someone was in pre trial custody for a year and got 3 years they could end up walking out of court a free person.
The current Govt. stopped that but not without a fight from the 'hug a thug' crowd.
With madatory release a 6 year sentence also means 4.