The jury that acquitted Michael Jackson of child-molestation charges this month did not find him innocent.
A lot of alleged journalists need to be talked off allege.
And suspects don’t commit crimes. Criminals do.
These may not be the most serious misuses of language by journalists, but they are among the most common, and not that hard to get right. So let’s get it right:
Not guilty is precise legal language best left intact. It is accurate to paraphrase it as acquitted, but not as innocent. After the Jackson verdict, some jurors were quick to say they didn’t buy his attorneys’ portrayal of the defendant as childlike and guileless. They weren’t even sure he didn’t commit the crimes he was charged with, or others. They didn’t have to be. The judge painstakingly instructed them on the exact standard of proof prosecutors had to meet.
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