Evolve U

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

27th August, 2009 - Posted by Shaunice Hawkins - No Comments

These days, there is at least one crime, law enforcement, courtroom and/or legal drama on every major television and cable network.  With the help of Judge Judy, Jack Bauer (24) and other larger than life characters, we can – in any 24-hour period on any of our 1400 channels – vicariously gather forensic evidence at a crime scene (CSI); retrace the steps of a serial killer (Criminal Minds); witness a marriage crash and burn (Divorce Court); prosecute an aggressive offender with a shoe fetish (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit); sue an ex-girlfriend for a big screen TV (Judge Joe Brown); or help a widow take on her husband’s former employer for wrongful death (Drop Dead Diva).  Whatever your fancy, there’s a show out there for you.

My favorites are law enforcement and courtroom dramas.  In the courtroom dramas, there’s always a suspenseful argument to be heard and decided.  Usually at the height of a criminal case, we find the prosecution (or accuser) trying to convince the judge and/or jury that his/her version of the facts is true.  By demonstrating that the defendant’s (or accused’s) guilt for each element of the crime is beyond reasonable doubt (or “a moral certainty”), the prosecution seeks to convict the defendant.  The defendant, who often faces fines and possibly incarceration, in turn, argues that the prosecution has failed to prove his/her case and that the defendant is not guilty. 

What’s fascinating (outside of the obvious emotional rollercoaster) is that even though these shows include a certain measure of literary license, many of the cases, believe it or not, are based on actual events.  More intriguing than the shows themselves is the drama that is reenacted in our minds on a regular basis. 

We, too, are on trial.  Our mind is the courtroom and “fear” is the prosecutor.  Fear (also known as worry, anxiety, panic and horror) is a distressing emotional response aroused by a real or imagined threat of impending danger, evil, pain, terror, and dread.  Its personality is to remain in the unconscious mind long after exposure to the threat and to repeatedly manifest itself as distrust, phobia, paranoia and hysteria. Its purpose is to overwhelm a person to the point of making irrational choices and to change his/her normal behavior in an extreme counterproductive way.

As the prosecutor, Fear, seeks to establish (beyond a reasonable doubt) its version of the facts as truth in order to convict us to a paralyzing life of complacency and inaction. Fear regularly presents evidence – generational curses, habitual behaviors, vices, temptations, mistakes, failures –  to demonstrate to our judge/jury (our consciousness) that we are guilty of each element of our accused crimes (incompetency, inadequacy, ineptitude, ignorance). 

Fear would have us believe that we incapable of achievement.  By listening to the testimonies of “guilt,” “shame,” “blame,” “humiliation,” and “disgrace”, we convince ourselves that we are at fault and an issue a death sentence before all the evidence is presented and final arguments made.  However, we must remember that we (as defendants) have rights, too.  We are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The burden of proof is on the prosecution (Fear).  As defendants facing the incarceration of defeat, all we must do is argue that Fear has failed to prove its case.  In other words, in order for us to be indicted or found guilty, Fear must show that we committed the accused acts and establish that we possessed an “intent” to commit the acts. 

Furthermore, as defendants, we don’t have to testify, call witnesses or present any other evidence…we don’t have to defend our position.  If we say that we are winners, then, we are winners. It is up to Fear to prove that we are not.  

We have to take heart in the fact that Fear has no direct evidence against us.  It is all circumstantial.  While it is Fear’s job to provide evidence of our past, in reality, it can only infer or imply that our past will be our future.  Without direct proof otherwise, Fear has no argument against us.

Let us strike Fear’s comments from the trial record and expunge its evidence from the docket.  The judge/jury of our consciousness has entered its verdict: NOT GUILTY.  Our case has been dismissed.  Success is ours for the taking.

 

FINAL THOUGHT
Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile… initially scared me to death.
  ~ Betty Bender