The Romans believed that a person accused in a crime is:

always innocent

always guilty

innocent until proven guilty

The Romans believed that the person accused in crime is innocent until proven guilty. The Roman laws evolved throughout the ages, from the twelve tablets to the Corpus Juris Civilis (used by the eastern roman empire in the 500s A. D), The Roman laws was used until the 18th century. It protected the rights of the common people or the plebeians, and it also upheld the responsibility of the state to its people. The Roman laws survived the test of time, after the fall of Rome in the 5th century, the laws itself was still used by the later Germanic Kings in the Medieval Era. It was modified more in the Byzantine empire by Emperor Justinian I.