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Editorial: Making a case

Guilty, not guilty, or not proven? It’s time to debate a third verdict option.

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16th July, 2012
It helps to say it in a rolling Scots accent, but it is high time we had a serious debate about whether to introduce to our justice system the option of a third verdict, that of “not proven”. The acquittal of Ewen Macdonald in the Scott Guy murder case is, after all, hardly the only recent one to have raised eyebrows across the country. There can hardly be an adult New Zealander who hasn’t followed one of the famously puzzling murder cases of the past few decades without vigorously disputing a verdict – particularly where a defendant has been found not guilty, despite what appears to ...

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