All presumptive evidence of felony should be admitted cautiously…

All presumptive evidence of felony should be admitted cautiously; for the law holds, that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.

William Blackstone

Commentaries on the Laws of England · 1769

★ 3.6

Other tags relating to this quote

Topic

Presumption of innocence Criminal law Legal theory Law

Genre

Legal writing

Medium

Treatise

Time

1769 Age of Enlightenment

Person

William Blackstone

Provenance

Current citation

Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England: Book IV Of Public Wrongs, edited by David Lemmings. Oxford University Press, 2016, ch. 27.

Original citation

Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Law of England: Book the Fourth. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1769, ch. 27.

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All presumptive evidence of felony should be admitted cautiously; for the law holds… — William Blackstone

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