On this date in 1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason by a French court-martial.
J’accuse. “[A] phrase made famous by Emile Zola in a public letter attacking the irregularities of the Dreyfus trial (published Jan. 13, 1898).”
The accusation was enough.
Although I think it should also be noted that he was Jewish, so not really ‘one of us.’ The trial and associated events certainly cast this as a case that the person must be guilty because of ethnicity and religion.
Regardless, when the accusation is enough to “convict” how does that serve justice?