[HPforGrownups] wizard justice

[Lita]

No: HPFGUIDX 74309

On 7/30/03 2:55 PM, "ara_bob2000" <ara_bob2000 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> Surely wizarding courts would use either Veritaserum or truth spells
> to conclusively assess a defendants guilt or innocence?
> 
> Can anyone think why this would not be the case?

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I don't really think the wizarding establishment
really *wanted* to find out for sure. (And I'm not talking about individuals
like Crouch Sr., but the Ministry in general, as we've seen more of in OOtP.
I rather suspect that if Crouch Sr. had actually been put in charge we
probably would have seen something like Veritaserum.)

If you have prominent members of your community like Lucius Malfoy running
around as a DE, do you *really* want to expose him as such? Especially when
you (the Ministry establishment) clearly sympathize with the goals, if not
the terrible methods, that the DEs were advocating? Sure, people were put
away, but do we know of any really prominent ones? I get the impression that
people were mostly concerned with getting the terror to end, and not
necessarily with finding out what actually happened.

The Lestranges and Crouch Jr. got the book thrown at them for bringing the
terror back after everyone thought it was over. But I suspect that too many
people in power (and elsewhere, too) simply found it easier to believe that
many of the DEs were under Imperious than deal with what had actually
happened.
 
> (I reckon perhaps that Veritaserum is a bit poisonous, hence its'
> use is 'controlled by very strict Ministry guidelines').

I do like the idea of it being somehow poisonous or otherwise dangerous,
though. I can't be cynical all the time. :)

Lita