[PzLdr]

The legal standard is "Not Guilty". A moral standard is "Innocent". The correct disposition, at least in New York, by plea or verdict, would be "Not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect". Reporters, from whom the information is usually gotten, are too lazy, ignorant, or both to learn and use the correct terminology.

[highball]

The legal standard is "Not Guilty". A moral standard is "Innocent". The correct disposition, at least in New York, by plea or verdict, would be "Not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect".

Precisely the point I was trying to make. Your post was much more eloquent than mine.

"Innocence" is not a matter for the courts, no matter how sloppy we might all get with our terminology.