Barry Bonds pled not guilty to 15 counts felony charges relating to lying to a grand jury today in a Federal court in San Francsico.
This leads me to two questions:
1) In situations like this, do you have to say "not guilty" to each count as it is read? Or can you just issue a blanket "not guilty?"
2) I was told that back in the day, newspapers wouldn't write "not guilty," but instead use "innocent" because they were afraid of the "not" falling out of the typeset copy or the Linotype machine. Is this true or is it just an old journalist's tale?
If the journalists in yesteryear would have used "GUILTY MY ASS" instead on "NOT GUILTY" in their stories, they wouldn't have to worry about the "NOT" falling out of the typeset copy or the Linotype machine
You would write that he pled not guilty, because that is what you plead. (You don't plead "innocent.") Whether there was a fear of linotype operators in a pre-computer age, I don't know -- I've only worked in a non-linotype world -- but I think in most cases, the context of the story would help eliminate confusion if someone ever dropped a word.
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I'm not a lawyer, but I have watched a lot of "Law & Order."
And your plea in court can't be considered perjury.
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