'Wrongful' Acquittals and 'Unduly Lenient' Sentences-Misconceived Problems that Provoke Unjust Solutions

This chapter addresses an oddly neglected but equally important question in sentencing theory, namely why the wealth of attention rightly given to wrongful convictions has not also been awarded to wrongful acquittals and unduly lenient sentences? The first section provides a recitative of recent developments in England and Wales and the United States concerning 'wrongful acquittals' and 'unduly lenient sentences'. The second section dips shallowly into the literature on moral luck to see whether it offers insight. The third section presents a series of arguments concerning why wrongful acquittals and unduly lenient sentences should be allowed to rest where they fall, why policies should not be adopted to remedy them, and why conventional arguments in favour of remedies are unpersuasive.