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What should be the burden of proof in the court of public opinion?
After all, in a criminal court of law the burden is 'beyond a reasonable doubt'. A reasonable doubt, mind you, does not mean beyond any doubt. You don't have to have the smoking gun, the blood DNA left behind at the crime scene, or the time coded surveillance video. Circumstantial evidence IS sufficient to convict someone of a crime. And this is the highest burden we have in our courts. It's set this high precisely because the criminal courts can take your money, they can take your freedom, they can even take your life.
In civil court, where you are seeking specific performance or some equitable determination, the burden is often 'clear and convincing evidence'. Meaning substantially more likely than not that the thing is in fact true. If your just seeking money the burden becomes 'preponderance of the evidence', or really just more likely than not.
To get a case to trial you really just have to have 'some credible evidence' to support your contentions.
Criminal courts can take your life so we hold them to the highest standard, when the court can take your property or force you to do something we hold them to a standard of substantial likelihood, if it's a dispute over money we need the evidence to prove more likely than not. So what standard should we use in our court of public opinion?
What can I do to Milton Bradley, Josh Lueke, or John Rocker for that matter? I can chose to root for them or not. I can choose to support them on message boards and blogs that they will most likely never read.
Maybe someday I'll be in the position to hire them, or more likely they'll be in a position to hire me and I would have to decide if I wanted to work for them. Would I? I dunno, I'd have to hear their side of the story. Which is, I guess, the point of your post.
Though it is important to remember that many crimes go unreported. And many crimes that are reported do not result in an arrest. And many arrests are not followed up by prosecution. And many crimes that are prosecuted do not end up in a conviction.
That doesn't mean that the crime didn't occur.
- Ben.