Wisdom
Wisdom decides what those facts mean.
Every day, courts rely upon evidence.
Fingerprints.
DNA.
CCTV.
Mobile phone records.
Yet every day judges and juries are still asked to answer questions that science alone cannot answer.
Wisdom does not replace evidence.
Wisdom guides us when evidence alone cannot answer the question before us.
Two women stood before King Solomon.
Both claimed to be the child's mother.
There were no witnesses.
No forensic evidence.
No confession.
Only two conflicting claims.
How do you deliver justice when the facts alone cannot answer the question?
Famously, King Solomon tested the true love of a mother when he threatened to give each woman half of the baby who they both claimed as theirs. The true mother, naturally, was prepared to give up her right to save the baby’s life.
Most people think Solomon's greatness was:
a clever trick.
It wasn't.
His greatness was that he realised:
The real evidence lay not in what the women said—but in how they responded when faced with losing the child.
That is wisdom.
He recognised that human behaviour was itself evidence.
That's an extraordinary judicial insight.
Solomon did not ignore the evidence. He recognised that the most important evidence had not yet revealed itself.
Three thousand years have passed, yet judges still face the same problem. Evidence can establish facts, but wisdom is often needed to interpret what those facts mean.
This is observed in courts each day when judges, after listening to the evidence, rely on the tone, posture, and other signs of a witness to determine the truthfulness of their statements.
Even juries are instructed by the judge to use their own world experience to determine their verdict.
So, it is imperative that we all rely on our own wisdom.
For a cook, ““Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit
Wisdom is knowing you don’t use it in a fruit salad”
For a tradesman, “you don’t repeat an action if it has already failed once.”
For a seafarer, “Pay heed to what the weather is telling you.”
A doctor may know every symptom.
Wisdom tells him when to question his first diagnosis.
So how much more important is it, when you are dealing with the lives of others?
Unfortunately, many in the legal system neglect this ancient tool in favour of expediency, pride, career, and fear.
Justice needs evidence.
But evidence alone has never been enough.
Justice also requires wisdom.
In 1963 a youth was questioned by the police after they had been called out to a hit-and-run. As they walked past the youths car, they noticed the front grill had been damaged.
On the front mudguard were a few drops of blood.
The youth had found her only minutes after she had been hit
He then told them that he and the girl had an argument.
That knowledge had been enough to charge him.
The next day the detectives found that the youth had run into the back of another car weeks earlier.
The police had positioned the two cars together and the back bumper of the other car fitted perfectly into the dent in the grill.
The girl was found to have bled profusely and the youth had blood all over his hands and clothing; consequently, it would have been impossible for him not to have left blood marks on the car.
The argument was very minor and not one that would have led to such violence.
The vehicle examiner, after inspecting the car for signs of hitting a pedestrian,
Told the detectives that “this car has not hit anyone.”
The crown had enough evidence to charge and convict, but obviously no wisdom; the youth was exonerated 40 years later.
Wisdom isn't only needed in courtrooms.
I heard a neighbour say that the government was going to give us more money and how there were some that opposed it; she was shocked by that.
Knowledge told her that we should all welcome a helping hand, financially.
But her opponent, with wisdom, realised that for the government to give, they first had to take; as they have no means of their own. And to administer that gift to us they would have to take more than they gave.
Science has transformed justice.
It has made investigations more accurate than ever before.
But science cannot decide every question.
It cannot measure honesty.
It cannot measure courage.
It cannot measure compassion.
It cannot tell us what is just.
That still requires wisdom.
Perhaps the future of justice depends not only on better science—but on wiser people.
Next Edition
Humility — The Courage to Say "I Was Wrong.”
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