Monday 19 April 2010

Yes, You've Been Acquitted...

...but don't think that makes you innocent:
...the Ministry of Justice rejected his cash request after ruling that he has still not proven his innocence.
If that sounds like the state in a massive case of sour grapes, well, who am I to disagree?
...officials who analysed George's application questioned whether had shown himself be 'clearly innocent' of killing Miss Dando, who was shot dead on her doorstep in Fulham, West London, in April 1999.
The jury acquitted him. The state didn't make its case.

I think there should be a penalty for that. Otherwise, what's to stop them from doing the same thing yet again to some other oddball?

I don't know about you, but I don't think the first reaction in a murder case should be 'Round up the usual suspects. We've got nothing to lose'...

8 comments:

Jeff Wood said...

Like other people who know a bit about firearms, I felt from the beginnning that the case against George smelled strongly of fish.

The chap should have his money.

Malthebof said...

Has innocent until proved guilty gone the same way as habeus corpus, double jeopardy etc, courtesy of NuLab?

Brian, follower of Deornoth said...

Jeff,

You are too kind. The police, under pressure to get the killer, fitted up the first suspect they could find.

English Viking said...

Probably best to shoot him, just to be on the safe side.

banned said...

The same attitude is being taken by the hideous new Vetting & Barring Agency who will soon be examining the 'background' of up to (ha ha+++) people who work with vulnerable persons. They take the view that just because you were aquitted does not mean that you did not do it.

http://www.isa-gov.org/

Macheath said...

Malthebof, in the Scottish legal system, along with the 'not proven' verdict, there's the little legal matter of the 'pattern'.

If the prosecution can show that the defendant's behaviour fits a pattern associated with guilt on another occasion, then the burden is on the defendant to prove his innocence in court.

The upshot is that there is no automatic presumption of innocence in Scottish law.

Noticed any Scots around Westminster lately?

JuliaM said...

"Like other people who know a bit about firearms, I felt from the beginnning that the case against George smelled strongly of fish."

The stuff with the speck of gun residue went quite over my head at the trial and subsequent appeals.

But I never felt he showed any of the behaviour you'd expect with an obsessed, target-fixated danger. Now, if he'd killed Freddy Mercury, maybe...

But Jill Dando?

"Has innocent until proved guilty gone the same way as habeus corpus, double jeopardy etc, courtesy of NuLab?"

It looks increasingly like it...

"The same attitude is being taken by the hideous new Vetting & Barring Agency..."

As I believe people warned at the time. To no avail...

"The upshot is that there is no automatic presumption of innocence in Scottish law.

Noticed any Scots around Westminster lately?"


Heh! Just a few...

John Pickworth said...

"I don't know about you, but I don't think the first reaction in a murder case should be 'Round up the usual suspects. We've got nothing to lose'..."

It wasn't their first reaction though was it?

Inspector Clueless spent an enormous amount of time looking for Serbian hit men and underworld crime bosses... Before deciding that line of enquiry was much too difficult.

And there's more bad news for 50-year-old George - Whitehall officials have concluded he OWES the state £40 a day for his bed and board while inside

Un-bloody-believable !!!