[WikiEN-l] Viajero/Zero and Lance6 - POV terms

[Geoffrey Burling]

On Wed, 28 Jul 2004, Ray Saintonge wrote:

> Harry Smith wrote:
>
> >with regard to calling an act murder.  The common
> >definition of murder and the definition that appears
> >in wikipedia is:
> >
> >Murder is the crime of intentionally causing the death
> >of another human being, without lawful excuse.
> >
> >If we accept this definition, then we need to ask if
> >the individuals that shot the boy had lawful excuse.
> >>From the articles, the reason for the shooting is that
> >the boy and his family opposed the attempt to use the
> >family's property/land.  Does the family's refusal
> >constitute lawful excuse for the shooting?
> >
[snip]
> >
> Perhaps we need to change the definition to add something like, "as
> determined by a duly constituted tribunal."  The facts outlined above
> could very well result in a determination that there was a murder, but
> neither we nor our contributors are in a position to make the needed
> interrogations that will lead to the truth.  It's not for us to decide.

Many years ago, I took a couple of journalism classes in college. One of the
few things I remember is that when writing about unlawful activities, one
must carefully use specific words to qualify the charge, such as "accused",
"alleged", "indicted", & "convicted". For example:

*President Bush, alleged cocaine abuser

*The CIA allegedly sold drugs in Los Angeles to fund the Contras in Nicaraugua

*Kenneth Lay, indicted for corporate fraud

*Martha Stewart, convicted of insider trading

Note carefully that what is being asserted is not whether or not any of the
people mentioned _actually_ committed the crimes, merely the opinions of
a large number of people, or the official verdicts of the American legal
system. And it has been documented that individuals are occasionally
arrested, tried & convicted for crimes that they are later shown not to have
committed -- thus we cannot assert that conviction for a crime means that it
was an NPOV fact that they actualy committed that specific crime.

Also note that these phrases are based on Anglo-American law, where people
are arrested, indicted by a grand jury, then found innocent or guilty by a
court. I'm not sure just what the equivalent terminology in Civil Law would
be. If a prosecuting judge charges someone with a crime, would it be correct
to say that the person charged is indicted?

I think is a solution that would nicely fit with the rules of NPOV.

Geoff