The court of public opinion

• Should English criminal courts have a third choice of verdict like the Scots, or even seven like the Italians?

The acquittal of the England and County Durham cricketer Ben Stokes last month of affray has raised some interesting questions about what an acquittal means in reality for a defendant. Stokes, despite being acquitted and therefore not guilty of anything criminal whatsoever, was nonetheless shown on footage taken from CCTV cameras in central Bristol on the evening in question punching Ryan Hale in the face before Hale fell to the ground, apparently unconscious. Hale’s friend Ryan Ali (a co-defendant in the trial and also acquitted) was left with a broken eye socket and heavy swelling to his face following the fight. Stokes’s acquittal for affray—the only offence with which he was charged—did not, it seems, secure him an acquittal in the court of public opinion on the basis of the responses from sports writers and commentators.