Would you rather a guilty man go free, or an innocent man be imprisoned?

For the sake of the argument, let's say the charge was for the murder of a child, and the guilty man was likely to re-offend, and the innocent man is unable to appeal successfully. This is mainly a debate surrounding the existing legal system infrastructure, but I've added a specific crime and a few extra details to it in order to stop any "the innocent man would appeal and be let out" comments that could derail any possible discussion.

I'd rather the innocent man be charged and found guilty than having a guilty man walk free. My reasoning for this is simply due to the fact that in the circumstances listed above, it is likely that children would be the guilty man's next target when he re-offends, and I'd rather that the innocent man live in prison, than children possibly die as a result. Feel free to disagree with me, but please rationalise your argument. If you post is < 20 words, you haven't done that.

RE: Would you rather an guilty man go free, or an innocent man be imprisoned?

I don't like hypotheticals, but I would pick an innocent man be imprisoned, if the charge were murder. Mainly, because of the likeliness of re-offending.

However, if the charge was something petty, then I rather have a guilty man walk free. Due to, it being a petty crime.

RE: Would you rather an guilty man go free, or an innocent man be imprisoned?

Raptor said:

I'd rather the innocent man be charged and found guilty than having a guilty man walk free. My reasoning for this is simply due to the fact that in the circumstances listed above, it is likely that children would be the guilty man's next target when he re-offends, and I'd rather that the innocent man live in prison, than children possibly die as a result. Feel free to disagree with me, but please rationalise your argument. If you post is < 20 words, you haven't done that.

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This pretty much sums up my exact thinking on this topic.

RE: Would you rather an guilty man go free, or an innocent man be imprisoned?

Just to be the devils advocate, i'll say I would rather the guilty man walk free. An innocent man living the life of a guilty man, trapped in a 4x4 square box for the remainder of his life, surrounded by garbage people, eating and waiting to die in a garbage environment. That does not sit well with me. That is a man being robbed in the worst sense of his fair chance at life. Who knows what he would have accomplished had he never been convicted? It doesnt matter.

As for the guilty man, IF he is dumb enough not to take his get-out-of-jail-free-card and clean up, thats a shame. Because he probably will repeat his offense, and this time he may not get away from it. What about the child he kills? Nothing I say will justify it being okay that a child dies with anyone.

Nice thread/topic, btw.

RE: Would you rather an guilty man go free, or an innocent man be imprisoned?

Alt said:

Just to be the devils advocate, i'll say I would rather the guilty man walk free. An innocent man living the life of a guilty man, trapped in a 4x4 square box for the remainder of his life, surrounded by garbage people, eating and waiting to die in a garbage environment. That does not sit well with me. That is a man being robbed in the worst sense of his fair chance at life. Who knows what he would have accomplished had he never been convicted? It doesnt matter.

As for the guilty man, IF he is dumb enough not to take his get-out-of-jail-free-card and clean up, thats a shame. Because he probably will repeat his offense, and this time he may not get away from it. What about the child he kills? Nothing I say will justify it being okay that a child dies with anyone.

Nice thread/topic, btw.

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Completely off-topic, but in Australia, I've visited one of the Maximum Security prisons down here, and they are allowed to purchase Playstations and PG games from the small salary paid to them when they work in the prison shop. Many homeless people deliberately get imprisoned so that they have a bed and food available to them.

RE: Would you rather an guilty man go free, or an innocent man be imprisoned?

I would rather a guilty man go free because I saw the movie 'The Shawshank Redemption'. Andy Dufresne didn't deserve that.

RE: Would you rather an guilty man go free, or an innocent man be imprisoned?

With this, honestly you've got my mind going. I'm really not decided on this, I want to say guilty man goes free, due to how terrible it must be to be wrongly imprisoned. I think I'd have to go with an innocent man being imprisoned, due to this meaning punishments would be more effective, and obviously in a broader sense it'd be much safer and put a higher amount of guilty people away.

RE: Would you rather an guilty man go free, or an innocent man be imprisoned?

Now that I think about it, this question's pretty contradictory.

If a innocent man gets imprisoned, a guilty man goes free.

If a guilty man goes free, there's a likeliness an innocent man gets imprisoned.

RE: Would you rather an guilty man go free, or an innocent man be imprisoned?

Cann!bal said:

Now that I think about it, this question's pretty contradictory.

If a innocent man gets imprisoned, a guilty man goes free.

If a guilty man goes free, there's a likeliness an innocent man gets imprisoned.

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I understand what you mean, but the question arose when looking at the legal infrastructure. If the standard of proof drops, it is easier for innocent men to be convicted. If it is raised, then it is harder to convict the guilty.

I'd rather the guilty man go free.
He will re-offend, and will get caught red-handed hopefully

I would rather be a guilty man that was free because even though you live with that guilt, that would be lighter then the shame of being wrongfully imprisoned.

Wait but if the innocent man is charged what happens to the guilty man?