Would you talk with the police?

[Tommy]

I suspect there are a lot of folks in the "I'm innocent, so what's to fear from talking with the police" camp. I'm not and perhaps its because of an incident that happened to me when I was a freshman in college. My incident had nothing to do with the police, but it did open my eyes to the fact that an innocent person can appear very guilty and runs the risk of being found guilty.

In my case, a classmate visited my dorm room while I was gone and copied the opening paragraph of an essay I had written for an English assignment. After that assignment was turned in, the English professor kept us after class to tell us he was giving a grade of zero for cheating, and reporting us to the Honor Committee for action. My classmate seemed unsurprised by the professor's words while I was stunned and confused. The professor suspected we had both copied from the same source, but I knew my writing was my own original work. I had no idea what had happened. On the day the Honor Committee met, I was still without a clue about how to prove my innocence. Fortunately for me, the classmate confessed and the committee called my roommate who confirmed that he had allowed my classmate into my room while I was absent. Had my classmate not confessed, I would likely have been branded a cheat and forced to withdraw from the university. It could have been a life changing event and I would never have been able to prove my innocence to anyone.

It's possible to look at my story and conclude that the system worked. But it's also possible to conclude that circumstance sometimes make innocent people look guilty. That is why I place some stock in the concepts "innocent until proven guilty" and "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."

P.S. Good video.