A "GOLDEN THREAD."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 163, 12 July 1935, Page 6

A "GOLDEN THREAD."

The layman who knows little of law yet knows that in England every man is innocent until he is proved guilty. That fundamental principle rarely needs to be reaffirmed, but the House of Lords, in giving the reasons for its judgment 011 the Woolmington case, lias found reason to restate it in terms that will long be quoted in the courts (says tlio ".Manchester Guardian"). Woolmington was twice tried on a charge of murder. At the first assizes the jury disagreed. At the second he was found guilty, but was given leave to appeal. The Court of Criminal Appeal upheld the verdict in the second trial, and from its decision there is no further appeal unless the Attorney-General is convinced that some legal principle of prime value is concerned. 111 this case a principle of the first importance was at issue, and the Law Lords, to whom as the final court of the realm, the case was consigned, admirably explain their grounds for settling Woolmington free. Insufficient account was taken in the lower court of the obligation upon the prosecution to prove the prisoner guilty. '"Is it cor- ■ rcct." asks the Lord Chancellor, in stating the I reasons, in which all the Law Lords concur, [ for reversing the sentence, "to say that there may arise in the course of a criminal trial a ; situation in which it is incumbent 011 the ' accused to prove his innocence?" And he ■ answers in terms that are as cogent as they . are clear: N 1 matter what the charge or where the trial, the principle that the prosecution must ' prove the guilt of the prisoner is part of tho 'j common law of England, and no attempt to L j whittle it clown can be entertained. t > Lord Sankev described this as a "golden • I thread"' that is always to be seen throughout I : the web of the criminal law of this country, r j even if the records are searched back to the r days of King Canute. It is a memorable | reaffirmation. , |