n Guilty Men
“Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer,” says English jurist William Blackstone. The ratio 10:1 has become known as the “Blackstone ratio.” Lawyers “are indoctrinated” with it “early in law school.” “Schoolboys are taught” it. In the fantasies of legal academics, jurors think about Blackstone routinely.
The essay “n Guilty Men“, published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, is one of the most hilarious things I have ever read. Rarely have I seen a better executed example of bone-dry humor.
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