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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Morrow" data-source="post: 1924671" data-attributes="member: 27012">Why?  The distinction between the guilty and the innocent, good people and bad poeople, is the core basis of most legal justice systems and most moral systems.  In fact, if you read the Bill of Rights, you'll notice the phrase in the "without due process of law" in the 5th Amendment right after "No person shall [...] be deprived of life, liberty, or property".  The 14th Amendment uses the exact same language and applies it to the states.  What does "due process of law" do?  It determines whether they are innocent or guilty of crimes.  If they are innocent, the government may not deprive a person of life, liberty, or property.  If they are guilty, the government may.  PUt in really basic terms, the guilty deserve to be punished and the innocent do not.  Mapped onto a more moral sense, the idea is for bad people to be punished and for nice people to be left alone. `Is this really that alien of an idea these days?I think you are thinking legally rather than morally.  Look at Merriam-Websters definition of "innocent" 1b -- "harmless in effect or intention".  American Heritage offers two more definitions of "innocent" that are appropriate -- 1 ("Uncorrupted by evil, malice, or wrongdoing;") and 3 ("Not dangerous or harmfu; innocuous;").  None of those definitions are so subjective as to create a slippery slope.  Since Evil isn't bound to respect innocence, clearly the definition of "innocent" is from the perspective of Good and any or all of these could be applied in that way.  These definitions are also such that they'd clearly show up as part of a person alignment, with Neutral being unclear.  A peson who is "harmless in effect [and] intent", who is "uncorrupted by evil, malice, or wrongdoing", or who is "innocuous" would not be Evil and would most likely be Good.</blockquote>

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