ACQUITTAL

In contracts. A release, absolution, or discharge from an obligation, liability, or engagement. In criminal practice. 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 In a narrow sense, it is the absolution of a party accused on a trial before a traverse jury. Thomas v. De Graffenreid, 2 Nott & McC. (S. C.) 143; Teague v. Wilks, 3 McCord (S. C.) 461. Properly speaking, however, one is not acquitted by the jury but by the judgment of the court. Burgess v. Boetefeur, 7 Man. & G. 481. 504; People v. Lyman, 53 App. Div. 470, 65 N. Y. Supp. 1062. And he may be 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. Junction City v. Keeffe. 40 Kan. 275, 19 Pac. 735; People v. Lyman, 53 App. Div. 470, 65 N. Y. Supp. 1062; Lee v. State, 26 Ark. 260, 7 Am. Rep. 611; Morgan County v. Johnson, 31 Ind. 463. But compare “Wilson v. Com., 3 Bush (Ky.) 105; State v. Champeau, 52 Vt. 813, 315, 36 Am. Rep. 754. 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 accessary, and the principal has been acquitted. 2 Co. Inst. 364. In 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. See Co. Litt. 100a.