You meet someone and the name sounds familiar. When you get home, you find that they were indicted, tried, and acquitted of a crime that you consider serious.
Do you find yourself thinking “Oh, they were acquitted so there’s nothing there” or “Where there’s smoke there’s fire” or does it all depend on circumstances like the crime, the news stories, or whether you liked the person?
I think I might have an initial instinctive reaction of apprehension, but beyond that, I think it’s impossible to figure out a general formula for what I’d think of the person. The circumstances are going to matter a lot to me, and I’ll probably have different biases depending on the crime. Is it someone who was accused of murder? And if so, was the defense a self-defense, or did they claim the wrong person had been arrested? Was it a politician who had been charged with some sort of fraud or corruption? A soccer coach accused of child molestation?
I’d also want to know if the person was acquitted due to a lack of evidence, or a technicality, or something else.
FWIW: Juries never find defendants innocent. They find them not guilty if the evidence presented does not prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime charged.
Depends.
If people get off of serious crimes for technical reasons I never think that they’re innocent.
OK we live in democracies, but someone getting off because theres been a paperwork malfunction doesn’t inspire my sympathy.
If I knew none of the details of the trial I don’t think I’d assume anything, and if there’s no reason to ever see the person again I can’t imagine caring that much.
If I were curious enough or if it were someone I’d have to deal with going forward, I’d research the trial and find out the circumstances of the acquittal. Having that information, I’d just combine it with all the usual criteria I use in determining how much to trust someone and go from there.
gms453 is correct that a jury never finds anyone “innocent” but it’s worth mentioning that a jury CAN’T declare anyone “innocent.” That doesn’t mean no one IS innocent.
No one is innocent. Original sin and all
Suggestion: If this is someone who wants to become a part of your life, ask her/him to let you read her/his copy of the trial transcript, if s/he for any reason balks at doing so, RUN.
I know people who HAVE committed serious crimes and didn’t get caught, and I don’t think particularly badly about them. If someone else has had his day in court and been found not guilty, I’m certainly not going to think less of him than the people who haven’t.
I also know people who have been acquitted for (of?) serious crimes they did not commit, so I am more willing to believe the same thing occurred in the case of somebody I don’t know, or where I don’t know the full facts (which I also assume the jury had access to when they found the defendant not guilty).
I really doubt many people are going to have a copy of their trial transcript.
Lust4Life, while it does happen, very few people get off because of technicalities.
My answer would most likely depend upon whether another suspect has been identified and/or is being looked for.
Then you probably didn’t consider the crime serious, as the OP specifies. For me a serious crime is something that does sadistic harm to someone else.
They may not have a copy of the transcript, but they certainly can get one. Moreover, if the charge was serious and the evidence at trial exonerated them, they should get one ASAP to put to rest any qualms potential friends, spouses and employers may-and almost certainly will-have.
I have a friend who was accused of looking at dirty pictures of 17 year old girls. The police kicked in his door and took his computer. They found no evidence of wrongdoing on his computer ( and I know for a fact that he is computer illiterate, so I am sure he couldn’t have hid it from the forensics people well), and it was completely dropped by the courts and he got all his stuff back. Doesn’t matter though, to everyone I know who knows him he is now a paedophile. I think in America if the crime is sex related there is only guilty and it is impossible to prove innocence, at least as far a society is concerned.