It can be hard, living in a free society. In places where the rule of law prevails, and where all people — citizens, criminals, immigrants — are believed to be endowed with certain inalienable rights, guilt or innocence is determined by an independent judiciary and a jury of one’s peers. Even when the facts of the matter are hardly contested, liberty and justice require that the accused be judged not by the mob, or any one person, but through an oft-lengthy process wherein they are entitled to challenge the evidence against them.
Have you ever been certain of something, only to be later proven wrong? That happens to governments, even when they are composed of people doing their best to ascertain the truth; due process serves to protect everyone from an earnest mistake, but it also has safeguards against the possibility that the state may one day be run by those who are not acting in good faith at all.
