Comments on: Trivia: The Bastard Verdict

By: Thomas

Thomas — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:06:29 +0000

Awesome. Best legal system ever.

By: Pol x

Pol x — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:16:16 +0000

Thomas

the trial by combat thing I remember hearing about it at the time, an armed robber managed to bargian a significant reduction of his sentence in return for passing on the Trial by combat.

Young nasty robber VS septegenarian judge.

Yup, you fight the judge.

By: GCoastian

GCoastian — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:21:46 +0000

Doesn’t anyone remember that Arlen Specter used this as an excuse in the Clinton impeachment trial?

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:42:34 +0000

Trial by combat seems like a good answer. I’ll file suits against entire retirement homes. It’ll be just like that movie Gladiator, except more geriatric.

By: bean

bean — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:30:27 +0000

If I ever get to design my judicial system, this is going to be written in stone. The biggest problem with criminal law is lack of allowance for grey areas.

By: PaulVI

PaulVI — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:24:22 +0000

I dread Scot’s Law.

By: Tara

Tara — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:50:37 +0000

Well that would make it personal opinion would it not?

By: Maureen

Maureen — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:53:29 +0000

“Not proven” is kind of shitty — since you were never convicted, you can’t appeal it, you just get this weird stigma floating around for seeming sleazy despite possibly having done nothing wrong.

The flipside exists in Poland (or at least, it used to — unsure if it still does): Guilty but not dangerous. It means you violated the letter of the law, but it’s not actually a big deal.

By: Pol x

Pol x — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:39:37 +0000

according to Wiki it’s still on the books

By: Pol x

Pol x — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:19:07 +0000

Gisen

REally? since when was Not Proven removed?

I like Scots law, the right to trial by combat was on the statutes until the mid 80s.

Wikipedia here I come.

By: Gisen

Gisen — Tue, 13 May 2008 07:51:50 +0000

Although this used to be true, unfortunately our English overlords have changed this so that the “not proven” verdict is no longer an option.