The word 'innocence' is correct and can be used in written English.
You can use it to refer to a lack of guilt, knowledge, or experience of something. For example: "The innocence of the child was a refreshing reminder of the beauty of childhood."
The problem is that liberal universalism has long since lost its innocence.
That says a lot about the state's attitude to the individual's innocence before he has been tried, but even more about the state's odd sense of entitlement to the essence of each person.
The Huangs have maintained their innocence and say their daughter suffered from medical problems complicated by unusual eating habits that included periods of binging and self-starvation.
But a little bit of innocence has been lost on all fronts.
In response to the decision, Bamber said: "I am the only person in the UK who was [retrospectively] given a life tariff on a majority verdict that maintains innocence.
Hannah Montana – mugging for the camera, all embellished denim and wide-eyed innocence to the delight of monetised tweens – needs to be a distant-ish memory (just far enough that the generation who grew up watching her will want to spend money on her music, of course) for Cyrus and her record label.
Outside the court, a spokesman for Winehouse said: "She's always maintained her innocence and is very happy to move on with her life and put the episode behind her".
The court ruled that it cannot stop the execution even if a glaring mistake was made in his death sentence unless the new evidence related to the prisoner's innocence; in this case it does not speak to innocence but to the state of his mental development.
It means innocence, both in the sense of being free from guilt, and of a lack of sophistry.
By the age of 17, he was 6ft 4in tall, yet radiated a kind of innocence, a childlike quality, that became only more striking as the years passed.
Still, if those lessons mean the loss of our innocence, no one ever said wisdom came easily.
