On Trial

[i_am_erasmas]

No: HPFGUIDX 44651

Eric Oppen
> In fact...now that I think about it---how do we _know for sure_ 
that Augustus Rookwood, the guy denounced by Karakoff to get out of 
Azkaban, was actually guilty of anything?  The atmosphere of the 
Wizard World during the later Voldemort years reminds me of 
(ironically enough) a witch-hunt, where often all it takes is an 
accusation for conviction.  Karakoff doesn't strike me as the sort of 
person who would scruple at accusing an innocent person if it got his 
sorry behind out of Azkaban, and he might, for all we know, have had 
personal reasons to dislike Rookwood and want to get back at him.

Actually I think there is indirect evidence of Rockwood's guild at 
least. In Bagman's trial he is accused of passing information to 
deatheaters from Rockwood. Bagman may have been a stooge, but it 
appears that there was a followup investigation and that the 
investigators found that damaging information originating with 
Rockwood was being passed to deatheaters. 

I agree that the trials are lacking in a standard of justice. I would 
imagine, though, that it's really difficult to prove anything for 
sure in a magical world, and that the jurists must base their 
decisions mostly on intuition. The defendants are given an 
opportunity to speak, but without defense council, it's likely very 
hard to gather evidence to prove their innocence. I think that in 
cases where the defendent has something unexpected to say, further 
investigation may be called for to see if the claims can be verified. 

Erasmas