Blackstone's formulation

Blackstone's formulation

In criminal law, Blackstone's formulation (also known as Blackstone's ratio or the Blackstone ratio) is the principle: "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer", expressed by the English jurist William Blackstone in his "Commentaries on the Laws of England", published in the 1760s.

Historical expressions of the principle

The principle is much older than Blackstone's formulation, being closely tied to the presumption of innocence in criminal trials. An early example of the principle appears in the Bible (Genesis 18:23-32), [http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/guilty.htm "n" Guilty Men"] , 146 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 173, Alexander Volokh, 1997.] [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=72mZ1EMFRNkC&pg=PA187 "Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge"] , Yale University Press, Alan M. Dershowitz, 2003] as:

cquote|And Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?... That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes...

And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.

The twelfth-century legal theorist Maimonides, expounding on this passage as well as Exodus 23:7 ("the innocent and righteous slay thou not") argued that executing an accused criminal on anything less than absolute certainty would progressively lead to convictions merely "according to the judge's caprice. Hence the Exalted One has shut this door" against the use of presumptive evidence, for "it is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death." [Moses Maimonides, "The Commandments, Neg. Comm. 290", at 269-271 (Charles B. Chavel trans., 1967).]

Two prior historical formulations of the same principle are known. The original was in Sir John Fortescue's "De Laudibus Legum Angliae" (c. 1470), where he states that "one would much rather that twenty guilty persons should escape the punishment of death, than that one innocent person should be condemned and suffer capitally." Similarly, on October 3, 1692, while decrying the Salem witch trials, Increase Mather adapted Fortescue's statement and wrote, "It were better that Ten Suspected Witches should escape, than that the Innocent Person should be Condemned."

Other commentators have echoed the principle; Benjamin Franklin stated it as, "it is better [one hundred] guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer". [9 Benjamin Franklin, Works 293 (1970), Letter from Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan (Mar. 14, 1785)] But more authoritarian personalities are supposed to have taken the opposite view; Bismarck is believed to have stated that "it is better that ten innocent men suffer than one guilty man escape;" and Pol Pot [Locard, Henri. "Pol Pot's Little Red Book: The Sayings of Angkar". Silkworm Books, 2004. pp. 209.] to have made similar remarks.

Popular culture

In the American animated sitcom "The Simpsons" (episode "Saddlesore Galactica"), Chief Wiggum states, "I'd rather let a thousand guilty men go free than chase after them."

ee also

*Sensitivity and specificity

References

External links

* [http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/guilty.htm "n" Guilty Men] , Alexander Volokh


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Blackstone — refers to various people, places and concepts.Businesses*Blackstone Group, U.S. private equity and asset management firm *Blackstone Winery, winery located in Sonoma county, California *Blackstone Technology Group, U.S. consulting, IT… …   Wikipedia

  • William Blackstone — Sir William Blackstone (originally pronounced Blexstun) (10 July 1723 ndash; 14 February 1780) was an English jurist and professor who produced the historical and analytic treatise on the common law called Commentaries on the Laws of England ,… …   Wikipedia

  • John Fortescue — Sir John Fortescue (c. 1394 c. 1476) was an English lawyer, the second son of Sir John Fortescue, of an ancient Devon family. He was born at Norris, near South Brent, in Somerset.He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. During the reign of… …   Wikipedia

  • Increase Mather — Infobox Person name = Increase Mather image size = 220px caption = Increase Mather in 1688, when he was in London. Portrait by John van der Spriett birth date = birth date|1639|6|21|mf=y birth place = Dorchester, Massachusetts death date = death… …   Wikipedia

  • Presumption of innocence — The of innocencendash being innocent until proven guiltyndash is a legal right that the accused in criminal trials has in many modern nations. The burden of proof is thus on the prosecution, which has to collect and present enough compelling… …   Wikipedia

  • Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos — Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos (Latin for [for] whoever owns [the] soil, [it] is theirs all the way [up] to Heaven and [down] to Hell) often appearing in the shorter form Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum, omitting …   Wikipedia

  • ZIONISM — This article is arranged according to the following outline: the word and its meaning forerunners ḤIBBAT ZION ROOTS OF ḤIBBAT ZION background to the emergence of the movement the beginnings of the movement PINSKER S AUTOEMANCIPATION settlement… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Second Amendment to the United States Constitution — The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects the pre existing individual right to possess and carry weapons (i.e. keep and bear arms ) in case of confrontation.… …   Wikipedia

  • Immanuel Kant — Kant redirects here. For other uses, see Kant (disambiguation). See also: Kant (surname) Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant Full name Immanuel Kant Born 22 April 1724 …   Wikipedia

  • Right to keep and bear arms — The right to keep and bear arms, RKBA, [ [http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/rkba What does RKBA stand for? Acronyms and abbreviations by the Free Online Dictionary.] ] or right to bear arms is the concept that people, individually or… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”