Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition - I’ve been tricked and quite possibly bamboozled far too many times

Another fun fact about the Inquisition: they were one of the first organizations to operate under the rule that a suspect was innocent until proven guilty.

The Spanish Inquisition gets a lot of shit, and in some cases rightfully so, however as Sift Green has noted they began innocent until proven guilty in Europe but they didn't just stop there.

The notion of Habeas Corpus in Europe began with the Spanish Inquisition meaning that not only was a person considered innocent of a crime when accused BUT they also needed to find hard evidence that he did it. Before this the Innocent was not only presumed guilty but also had to defend himself and find evidence.
The Inquisition also had the accused write down a list of people who hated him or had something to gain for accusing him of the crime and any witness from these people could not be used in court.
Furthermore iirc the Inquisition also provided the defendant with some form of representation or legal counsel.
Further furthermore nearly all of the punishments were just apologizing, paying a fine, house arrest or hard labor.

Only in cases of Treason, Intentional Heresy (running a cult, or coven or promoting non Doctrinal Christianity), or crimes like conspiracy or murder was any torture meted out.