Blackstone's formulation
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In criminal law, Blackstone's formulation (also known as Blackstone's ratio or the Blackstone ratio) is the principle that it is "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer".
Named after the English jurist William Blackstone, the principle expressed in the formulation is much older, being closely tied to the presumption of innocence in criminal trials. The first expression of the formulation is found 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."
The ratio itself - 10 guilty to 1 innocent in Blackstone's archetypal formulation and 20:1 in Fortescue's original formula - is the subject of much variance among commentators, with authoritarian opinions inclining towards lower ratios (Bismarck stated "it is better that ten innocent men suffer than one guilty man escape").
Benjamin Franklin presented perhaps the most famous version of this ratio, "that it is better [one hundred] guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer"[1].
As a principle of justice, the imperative that the innocent not be abused by the system was generally considered self-evident during the enlightenment era, or any other time liberty was a significant force. Authoritarian governments, on the other hand, tend to lean toward erring on the side of punishment, lest any guilty man escape.
[edit] External links
- n Guilty Men, Alexander Volokh
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