The legal and formal certification of the innocence of a person who has been charged with a crime.
Acquittals in fact take place when a jury finds a verdict of not guilty. Acquittals in law take place by operation of law such as when a person has been charged as an Accessory to the crime of Robbery and the principal has been acquitted.
n. what an accused criminal defendant receives if he/she is found not guilty. It is a verdict (a judgment in a criminal case) of not guilty. (See: acquit)
ACQUITTAL, contracts. A release or discharge from an obligation or engagement. According to Lord Coke there are three kinds of acquittal, namely; 1. By deed, when the party releases the obligation; 2. By prescription; 3. By tenure. Co. Lit. 100, a.
ACQUITTAL, crim. law practice. The absolution of a party charged with a
crime or misdemeanor.
2. Technically speaking, acquittal is - the absolution of a party
accused on a trial before a traverse jury. 1 N. & M. 36; 3 McCord, 461.
3. Acquittals are of two kinds, in fact and in law. The former takes
place when the jury upon trial finds a verdict of not guilty; the latter
when a man is charged merely as an accessary, and the principal has been
acquitted. 2 Inst. 384. An acquittal is a bar to any future prosecution for
the offence alleged in the first indictment.