Ayisha
It is your perception that what I write is hyperbole.
Actually, that is not quite right. Yes, interpretation is necessary to make a case. I agree there. But the validity of the interpretation can be determined by the facts at hand.
If I can establish that you have used exaggeration to inflate the truth of something or in the inverse have unfairly minimized the effect of something to make your point, then I have shown that you have engaged in hyperbole. All I have to do is point to the words that you used in the context you used them.
None of us knows if the burden of proof was met. The case was not overturned because the burden of proof was not met. It was overturned because the judge erred in her instructions to the jury - a technicality.
Justice has not been served. It is similar to never having been tried. It is too bad that a re-trial was not granted so that your friend could receive a fair trial.
You say that the outcome after the fact is similar to never having been tried at all. But this ignores several facts to the contrary.
He has spent time in jail. This wouldn’t have happened had no trial transpired.
He has had to pay a great deal of money to this point. This wouldn’t have happened had no trial transpired.
His family would not have had to suffer has they have. This wouldn’t have happened had no trial transpired.
The entire fiasco run by the officials in the BVI has essentially poisoned the evidence and the environment to such a degree that a fair trial at this point is all but impossible. Another point you seem to have completely missed.
Even if one assumes Swain’s guilt going in, as some are wont to do, the situation remains the same. A guilty person trying to get away with murder would still prefer get away with it without the ordeal Swain has had as opposed to simply never being tried and getting away with murder.
Every way you look at it the outcome to date and the alternative of having no trial at all are irreconcilable.
Therefore, no matter how you slice it, you have catered to hyperbole. No interpretation necessary beyond the obvious to establish this fact. A dictionary will do.
Even your justification after the fact doesn’t hold. That some people will still see him as guilty even though he has been set free would certainly remain the same even if he had had another trial (and been set free), and more than likely would have had no trial happened at all because suspicions were already rife. You don’t seriously think that this situation would change if another trial took place at this juncture, do you?
People are going to judge him no matter what. Some will see him as guilty. Some will give him the benefit of the doubt. Others will assume he is innocent.
Cheers!