My point bringing it up: You too appear to be stating with that lack of direct evidence missing, that appears to be a proof of not guilty.
??? No, I am not. I'm stating that evidence of any sort should be good to secure a conviction. The evidence in this case was manifestly not good. I would put it to you the police picked up a bunch of ne'er-do-well children, leant on them very (and quite likely inappropriately) hard, and then the whole system rolled into place to make sure they went down in that atmosphere of public anger and fear, because it was more important justice be seen to be done than actually done.
What I'm getting at is that it does not demonstrate a good case for convictions on circumstantial evidence when circumstantial evidence achieved such a famous miscarriage of justice.
1. I got the opportunity to vote for Vivek, DeSantis, heck, even the monstrous Nikki Haley if I wanted to do so. The Democratic candidate was foisted upon her party. She didn't run in the primary. And they're saying they are pro-Democracy? A party can legally do this, and a precedent has been set but it isn't good for Democracy. Kamala seems to be doing well in the polls now, but the last time she actually had to face challengers in a primary? She got her butt waxed.
Imagine that Trump underwent a cognitive test in July after the primaries and it turned out he was in early stage dementia, so confidence in him crashed. It was too late to arrange a new vote before he needed to be certified. You would not bat an eyelid at the Republican Party "foisting" a new candidate from the top. Of course you wouldn't. You might regret it as not ideal, but you wouldn't be banding around terms like "undemocratic".
I could buy this for the remainder of Biden's term. Not for her to automagically be the nominee of the party.
4. But when I can vote for my party's nominee, and the other party, while arguing my party is anti-democratic, simply installs theirs, it is pretty dang hypocritical.
Firstly, in many countries all over the world, that's how governmental representatives and the party leader is elected... and they're still democracies.
Secondly, they are often selected because that's where the party donors' money is going, or (potentially even worse) money from special interest groups, or endorsements from other politicians. There are congresspeople and senators who are held in hate and contempt by their own electorate, but they keep their jobs because the party is dominant in that constituency, and the party machinery ensures they don't have serious challengers. That whole concept of party machinery kicks into action many electoral cycles for the president. Who, seriously, ran against Trump for Republican candidate in 2020? He was installed as Republican candidate with no meaningful challenger or choice offered. At best, some irrelevant no-mark threw his hat into the ring to grab some attention. (Same goes for Obama 2012 and GWB 2004.)
Candidate selection is not democracy.