acquittal

/akwital/

Contracts.

A release, absolution, or discharge from an obligation, liability, or engagement.

Criminal law.

The legal and formal certification of the innocence of a person who has been charged with crime; a deliverance or setting free a person from a charge of guilt; finding of not guilty.

Also, one legally acquitted by a judgment rendered otherwise than in pursuance of a verdict, as where he is discharged by a magistrate because of the insufficiency of the evidence, or the indictment is dismissed by the court or a nol. pros. entered. Or, it may occur even though the question of guilt or innocence has never been submitted to a jury, as where a defendant, having been held under an indictment or information, is discharged because not brought to trial within the time provided by statute.

Acquittals in fact are those which take place when the jury, upon trial, finds a verdict of not guilty.

Acquittals in law are those which take place by mere operation of law; as where a man has been charged merely as an accessory, and the principal has been acquitted.

See autrefois acquit

- jeopardy

- nolle prosequi

- verdict.

Feudal law.

The obligation on the part of a mesne lord to protect his tenant from any claims, entries or molestations by lords paramount arising out of the services due to them by the mesne lord