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It is better that 10 guilty men go free than one innocent person wrongly convicted

Who is the author of this phrase and who is the phrase directed to?
Google ?
I'm pretty sure it was Blackstone, but not in those words exactly.
There is no "author" per se. Blackstone wrote about it in his Commentaries.


It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer


Crucially Blackstone's achievement was summarising the common law into a single body of work. By default it is derivative; i.e. expressing what every lawyer in the country knew at the time. Blackstone's ratio is no different; it is an axiom of English common law which pre-existed even Blackstone but was expounded by Blackstone in his Commentaries.
Original post by kayjayveeh98
Who is the author of this phrase and who is the phrase directed to?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone%27s_formulation
Benjamin Franklin
I don't get it.
Original post by The PoliticalGuy
I don't get it.


It is a justification for a high standard of proof in criminal prosecutions. A high standard ensures no one is wrongly convicted but also means that people who are guilty will walk free as the evidence provided will not meet the high standard. The justification for this is the ratio.

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