Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor
Nov 24, 2017
One of the most sacred principles in our American criminal justice system is the presumption of innocence until a defendant is proven guilty.
The requirement, according to Wex Legal Dictionary, is “the prosecution prove beyond a reasonable doubt every element of a crime to convict a defendant,” and is granted by the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments.
Sadly, the politicization of nearly every aspect of our lives, bolstered by the mainstream media’s desire to mold public sentiment, has reduced the presumption of innocence statute to “what best serves political expediency.”
Frankly, the double standard to which liberals and the GOP establishment adhere would be laughable, if not tragic for the victims of this dereliction of duty.
Case in point is the travesty of journalism offered by reporter Stephanie McCrummen of The Washington Post when earlier this month she made public the allegations that Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore fondled a 14-year-old girl and pursued at least three other teenage girls decades ago as an assistant district attorney in the state of Alabama.
Per the Post, McCrummen was in Alabama as part of her paper’s coverage of the Senate race. She recently explained the genesis of the story to NPR.
“I was in Alabama actually reporting another story on Roy Moore supporters, a story aiming to understand, you know, the basis of his support in the state,” McCrummen said. “And it was at the end of a long conversation with someone there that these allegations surfaced.”
Why do you suppose a liberal reporter from The Washington Post would travel to Alabama to cover another state’s Senate race? Does anyone really think McCrummen’s intent was to report on the race or simply to scavenge skeletons in Moore’s closet and derail the chances of another conservative joining the Senate ranks?
So, a man’s career is virtually on the brink of destruction resulting from a newspaper story, based on unsubstantiated evidence, simply because he’s conservative.
Sadly, this appears to be the new evidentiary standard for the progressive movement in assaulting conservatives.
So, how does one intellectualize the major liberal media coverage of Bill Clinton, the assaulter-in-chief, when he faced multiple allegations of misconduct, both as Arkansas governor and POTUS? Clinton was confronted with multiple allegations of sexual misconduct from women like Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathy Shelton and Paula Jones.
While the media, liberals and the GOP establishment conduct themselves in support of the women accusers in Alabama and call for Moore to step aside from his Senate candidacy, Clinton’s accusers were berated and humiliated in the court of public opinion.
Irrespective of your political leaning, our country is teetering on the edge of judicial disaster if we succumb to this disregard for the presumption of innocence simply because it supports our political aspirations. Our judicial system would collapse beneath the weight of political jurisprudence!
Due process, afforded every individual by the Constitution, must be paramount in our list of protected rights. And the rule of law mustn’t be forsaken to propagate any political ideology.
Free State Patriot 
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