To be sure, it would be wonderful if society actually believed in "innocent until proven guilty," but we don't. One could argue that Google fans the flames of the problem by, for example, refusing to deindex news articles about arrests despite subsequent acquittals, or linking to blatantly libelous statements against millions of people at the top of its search results from sites with extortionate business models like RipOffReport.com.

But since society won't change, the justice system needs to. Prosecutors could refuse to file charges in flimsy cases that are highly unlikely to result in convictions, such as the one at issue here. They could also choose not to lie or embellish facts to obtain search or arrest warrants that propel unjust cases forward. Unfortunately, both of these activities seem to be accelerating, not slowing down. We are seeing more and more "novel" prosecutions - those where criminal intent is questionable at best. Prosecutors do these things to pad their stats so that they can get a higher salary when they switch to private practice, but at a tremendous cost to both the defendants and the taxpayers.