Scottish verdict

[Victor Steinbok]

On 11/2/2010 12:27 PM, Paul Frank wrote:
> Doesn't "guilty but lucky" just mean "scot-free"? A different kettle
> of fish from "Scots verdict," which means that after careful
> deliberation of the available evidence, the judge or jury concluded
> that the defendant could be found neither guilty nor innocent.

No one is innocent. Some are not guilty.

> Scots law recognizes that sometimes there are no black or white or easy
> solutions. There's a debate in England underway about whether to
> introduce a system of first and second-degree murder, based on the
> recognition that not all murders are equally heinous. Life is
> complicated.

Scotland is weird, among other reasons, because of an unusual blend of
common and civil law.

     VS-)

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