According to Merriam-Webster, innocence means a: freedom from legal guilt of a particular crime or offense b: freedom from guilt or sin through being unacquainted with evil: Blamelessness c: lack of knowledge: Ignorance d (1): freedom from guile or cunning: SIMPLICITY (2): lack of worldly experience or sophistication.

However, grammatically, the word innocence is a noun. It further goes on to mean that someone is not guilty of an act or something.

In legal parlance or looking at it from a legal perspective, being innocent means someone is proved beyond all reasonable doubt of not having knowledge of a crime so committed or alleged to have been committed in a competent court of jurisdiction.

Kofi Nkrabea is a young man in his early twenties. He lives in a small village called Kofintamokrom near Derma in the Ahafo Region. He lives with his grandparents since his both parents are deceased.

Sadly, his parents were killed in a fatal road accident on the Accra-Kumasi road in one fateful evening. In fact, this unfortunate incident occurred when Kofi was 10. He has been living with his grandparents all these years.

Apparently, as life has its own twists and turns, Kofi Nkrabea (orphan) went through a lot of such experiences after the demise of his parents. Life began to show its ugly side to him. In fact, let me be quick to add that he couldn’t have the benefit of formal education in his life.

This was, however, owed to the fact that poverty was so pervasive in his family. In fact, impecuniosity was so glaring in the family. Hence, the failure of his grandparents to sponsor his formal education.

Kofi Nkrabea a poor young man, is most times seen in the company of some village folks who were seen by the other members of the village as ‘bad people’. These village champions were always at the center of almost all the troubles that visited the village.

In fact, these people would most times engage in nefarious activities such as stealing, chasing girls, wee-smoking, and drinking among others in the village without the involvement of Nkrabea. In fact, Nkrabea was always absent during the operations of the ‘bad people’ in the village.

Ironically, Nkrabea who was always on the fence during the operations of the ‘bad people’ in the village was tagged as a bad person behind all the nefarious happenings in the village. In fact, he was tagged by the other members of the village as the mastermind behind those bad things that happened in the village. This was basically due to his company with those bad people.

On a more serious note, Kofi Nkrabea was given all the bad names and stigmatized for all the bad happenings in the village. In fact, he was accused of all the nefarious things that happened in the village. To make matters worse, he was accused of being a rapist, an armed robber, a drunkard, stubborn, and disrespectful among other things.

In the legal practice or profession, it is normal that an accused person who is arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction is given a fair hearing to also say his or her side of the story to as it were prove his or her innocence.

In fact, in a situation where all the people in the village have turned against him, persecuting him, pointing accusing fingers at him, the legitimate question then is, how could he prove his innocence especially when he is still part of those ‘bad people’ in the village?

Conclusively, with my utmost respect to my revered readers, I would like to end my write-up by reiterating the fact that, in a situation whereby one is accused of having committed certain wrongs in a society without judicial trial or fair hearing process, it becomes almost impossible for the accused person to prove his or her innocence.

Again, I respectfully entreat all my readers and many other people to exercise restraint when they want to accuse someone of a wrongful act in society. In fact, this act is in grave violation of the principles of natural justice.