EDITOR:

Watching the News these days, I cannot help but wonder if my fellow Americans know what POI “Presumption of Innocence” is? The defendant in a criminal trial is assumed to be innocent until they have been proven guilty. POI is one of our fundamental legal rights. There isn’t a person alive in this country who wouldn’t demand that right for themselves. So, what makes the Trump situation different? Would you stand for being treated the way he is? Not as former President, but just as an American citizen? These days it seems that people are ‘guilty as accused and that fact is celebrated in the media! I saw member of a television program gleefully announcing that, “the same judge that ruled against Trump is now going to preside over this new case.” As if the findings in one case makes the judge automatically going to find in this case. I must correct people. The jury finds in a case based on the arguments of the lawyers in the courtroom. Once the findings are established, then the judge does their thing and sentences the guilty (because it was proven that they were guilty). Do we even teach that in school these days? Why do so many people believe “guilty as accused “? Would you stand for being labeled”guilty” before trial? Why is Trump different?

Edward Stacey

Escanaba