Accused and automatically presumed guilty.  Accused and automatically presumed innocent.  There is a lot of talk about due process today and the right we have as citizens to considered innocent until proven guilty.  Here is an interesting perspective.

“The first sinners in the Bible – Adam, Eve and Cain – were given divine due process: they were confronted with the evidence, asked to defend themselves, given a chance to repent, spared the ultimate sanction of death and then assured of a second trial on the Day of Judgment, with appointed divine counsel. The only time that God deliberately withheld divine due process, Luther reminds us, was in the capital trial of His Son – and that was the only time it was and has been necessary. The political implications of this are very simple: if God gives due process in judging us, we should give due process in judging others. If God’s tribunals feature at least basic rules of procedure, evidence, representation and advocacy, human tribunals should feature at least the same.”

God’s Joust, God’s Justice: Law and Religion in the Western Tradition By John Witte