Fudge - Lockhart - Florences, Slugs - Why Harry Lived...

[rja.carnegie at excite.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19550

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Margaret Dean <margdean at e...> wrote:
> JamiDeise at a... wrote:
> > 
> > In a message dated 5/26/2001 10:02:14 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> > meboriqua at a... writes:
> > 
> > << The way the law is dealt with in the wizarding world is a very
> >  interesting issue.  It seems to me that the MoM often uses "guilty
> >  until proven innocent" tactics instead of the other way around.  >> I
> > believe that is the British system of law, someone please correct me if I'm
> > wrong. But I'm pretty sure that while it's "innocent until proven guilty" in
> > the States, in Britain it's "guilty under proven innocent," and the onus is
> > on the defendent, not the prosecution.
> 
> No, Britain also has the "innocent until proven guilty"
> standard.  (Hence the possibility, not to say the popularity, of
> mystery novels.)  IIRC, the opposite =was= true in France at
> least at one time.  Does anyone know for sure?

Not for sure, but from 
http://home.att.net/~u100482001/february2001homework/FrenchRevolutionPartII.htm
- which appears to be someone's textbook followed by homework
questions - it seems that the Napoleonic Code of Criminal
Procedure, in the year 1808 according to other online sources,
provides that defendants there are also presumed innocent.
During The Terror, it might have been another matter.

There seems to be concensus in Chapter 1 of PS that the
emergency is over - perhaps that didn't last very long?

>From POA: "Black was taken away" [from the "crime scene"]
"by twenty members of the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol,"
and has "been in Azkaban ever since."

There wasn't, perhaps, a trial held _in_ Azkaban, with Black
present?  His plea in defence could have been heard, but discounted -
the evidence that makes the difference is that Peter Pettigrew
escaped alive after all, and without producing Peter, Sirius
was sunk.

There's an ancient British law, pre-dating modern criminal codes -
if someone was "caught red-handed" - literally with blood on their
hands having clearly committed the crime - then a trial was redundant.
This was a _very_ long time ago - like, 1000 years.

Robert Carnegie
Glasgow, Scotland

"I read them all when I was seven and I hated them" - unnamed American
office worker on the Harry Potter books (www.dilbert.com, List of
Stupid Things Overheard)