Meeting force with force
- Thread starter PhotonGuy
- Start date
So in practice, it's functionally the same as "not guilty" since it's not like they're wearing a sign.
it is almost like not guilty but there's a stigma to it, people will always wonder, with guilty or not guilty they may still wonder, human nature to, but not proven shows that the jury actually can't convict because a couple of their number think the defendant is guilty, a couple more might think there's reasonable doubt but not enough think the defendant is innocent for a majority verdict but it's not something you want hanging over your head. If you need a DBS here to work you won't get one, ( DBS is a police check for certain professions, childcare, vulnerable adult care and instructing/coaching sports and activities.) because it's on your police record. The police are also likely to be keeping an eye on you, so you aren't guilty but are dodgy basically.
It often comes in a rape/sexual assault trial, when the evidence is he said/she said, then it doesn't satisfy anyone. The victim feels the attacker has got away with it while defendant feels they haven't proved their innocence enough. The law says not proven is the same as not guilty but is not to be seen that way by the public on the whole. When I was a child in Scotland there was a case involving a man near us, he had a not proven verdict ( I found out as an adult it was a rape case) and he was hounded out of his work and home by local people.
This is one case where the verdict was not proven.
Mother cleared of toddler murder
Um, how would people know? I mean, I realize that the UK is smaller than a lot of US states, let alone the whole country, but even in a small country, there are wayyyyy too many people to worry that any random person is going to know your (generic term) legal history. Unless it's an incredibly high profile case.
And that stigma (in the rare case that someone knows about it) applies to "not guilty" as well, at least in the US. It doesn't mean 'you didn't do it' at all. It means 'they couldn't prove you did it' and nothing more (or less). A great example is OJ Simpson. Most people are pretty well convinced that he's a double murderer. But the state did a crappy job, and he got away with it.
All serious criminal cases, all murder and rape trials are held in the High Court and trust me everyone knows, they are always high profile, if they aren't it would be in the Sherriff's Courts but all trials are widely reported and just about everyone knows. We aren't talking about the UK though, just Scotland, population 5 million ( according to Google 15 million less than New York lol) in many small communities. Living in Scotland is like living in a village.
The trials are only held by the High Court which can be in Aberdeen, Glasgow or Edinburgh. It has only met outside Scotland once when it was held in the Netherlands for the Lockerbie Pan-am bomber's trial, the Netherlands. It was in an American Air Force base there. ( the 30th anniversary of which was last month). My husband still in the RAF at the time was called out with his unit to help with the search for remains etc, it was a gruelling task, our local Fell Rescue team went as well as others from around the country.
