Usually when a person's guilt can't be proven (or has not yet been proven or disproven) in a court of law, it is assumed that he or she is innocent. But in the court of public opinion it tends to be the exact opposite. The public (or even the authorities) are convinced you're guilty; they just don't have enough hard evidence to prove your guilt. Now this doesn't necessarily means the person in question IS guilty mind you, It just means he/she has already been tried and Convicted by Public Opinion. The public can either be right or dead wrong. . Examples of Convicted by Public Opinion include: