Comment by JPKab
4 years ago
John Wayne Gacy was convicted in a criminal court of law, with rules, where he was presumed innocent until proven guilty.
You attempt to draw a connection, but it's a false analogy out of the gate.
4 years ago
John Wayne Gacy was convicted in a criminal court of law, with rules, where he was presumed innocent until proven guilty.
You attempt to draw a connection, but it's a false analogy out of the gate.
I mostly agree with the point you're making, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to assume that the jury actually really presumed Gacy innocent at the start of his trial.
Like everyone, they were certainly biased toward assuming his guilt in the run-up to the trial.
No system is perfect, and humans are fallible. But that's kinda the underlying issue with this entire discussion: if she had gone to the authorities (especially if only years after the incident in question, and also consider that the incident happened in a different country), would there be any legal remedy here? I think it's pretty likely that nothing material would have come of that.
> bit of a stretch to assume that the jury actually really presumed Gacy innocent at the start of his trial.
This seems perfectly reasonable to me and juries are explicitly picked so they aren’t familiar with cases before trial. If a potential juror knew of Gacy, they would be excluded.