Why Veritaserum was ot used at Sirius' trial?.

[sophierom]

No: HPFGUIDX 128894

"dumbledore11214" wrote:
> > 
> > > 
> > > To tell you the truth, now I am wondering even more whether
non-use 
> > > of Veritaserum was a plot hole. 

> Angie here:
> 
> Along that same vein, I've wondered why it Veritaserum wasn't used
on 
> the students in COS, or for that matter, when the Chamber was
opened 
> the first tine.  I know all about privacy rights, the right not to 
> condemn yourself, etc., but sometimes those rights are outweighed
by 
> safety considerations.  Not that I would condone its use for every 
> little thing, but the events in COS would seem to me to be the type
of 
> extraordinary circumstances which would warrant its use, especially 
> when someone died the first time the Chamber was opened.

Sophierom:

If I understand correctly, Veritaserum has a parallel in real life or
"muggle" society: Sodium Pentothal and other so called "truth serums".
Even in the extraordinary circumstance of a school-related death, law
enforcement in the U.S. (and I'd in suspect the U.K., as well) would
not be authorized to use the substance on suspects without their
consent. Also, truth serums are not guaranteed to provide the "truth";
they lower inhibitions, making it less likely that the individual
under the influence of the serum will lie. From what I know (and I'll
be the first to admit I don't know much!), truth serums are used in
torture and interrogation settings, not in law enforcement and legal
settings.  

Now, I know that Vertiaserum is a potion in a magical world, so we can
assume or imagine that it would be more accurate or more powerful than
a "muggle" truth serum.  But I'm guessing that JKR did not just make
up the most recent bit about Vertiaserum to cover a plot hole; I'll
bet that Vertiaserum was actually based heavily on real-life truth
serums. 

When do we actually see Veritaserum in canon? 

1. Snape introduces the potion in Chapter 27 of GoF when he threatens
to "slip" some into Harry's pumpkin juice (this is after Snape admits
that Veritaserum is "controlled by very strict Ministry guidelines"
Am. ed., 517). 
2. Dumbledore actually uses it on Barty Crouch, Jr. in Chapter 35. My
guess is that this is Dumbledore acting not as Headmaster or Chief of
the Wizengamot, but as the head of the Order of the Phoenix.  In this
sense, he's acting outside of the law.
3.  The other major use of Vertiaserum that I can remember is Umbridge
in OotP; she slips some into Harry's tea, which he is smart enough not
to drink. My reading of this is that Umbridge is doing this not as
Undersecretary or Interim Headmistress but instead is acting in the
same vigilante manner as she did when she sent the Dementor to attack
Privet Drive in the beginning of OotP. 

Are there other examples from canon?

As far as I can tell, all of the cases when JKR does use Vertiserum
are examples of extra-legal activity of some kind or another. It
doesn't seem to be a potion that the Ministry could use to prosecute a
legal case; instead, it's a potion that's used to gain information. 
As Eggplant pointed out in post #128887, the Ministry is not
interested in gaining information in the case of Sirius. If they were,
they'd have held a trial and Sirius might have offered to testify
under the influence of Vertiaserum (JKR's website). Instead, the
Ministry was reacting to a long war and wanted nothing but to lock
Sirius away.

In the case of the Chamber of Secrets being opened in Tom Riddle's
day, there's no desire to find out the "truth" when the officials
accept Tom Riddle's story and call the situation a bad accident,
expelling Hagrid in the process. Now, Hagrid could have demanded to
tell his side of the story under Veritaserum, but he was expelled in
his third year at Hogwarts. Harry doesn't even discover Veritaserum
until his fourth year, and even then it's only because Snape threatens
him with it. So, there's no guarantee that Hagrid even knew of
Veritaserum.  

Sophierom