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That’s actually false.
1. Motherfucker is a generalized term commonly used against people as an insult who you aren’t claiming actually fucked their own mother
2. If you are literally saying someone is a murderer even after they are found not guilty in a court of law you absolutely can be hit with a defamation lawsuit . Murder is a legal distinction and the trial where you are found not guilty is going to be brought in as evidence. This was brought up after the rittenhouse trial as well
I did mean accusing someone literally of fucking their mother. You can do that despite an acquittal.
It doesn't mean anything that someone can file a defamation lawsuit against someone else. They can do that even with a guilty verdict, they'll just lose. And they still might lose with an acquittal.
Yes, an acquittal can be brought up as evidence in a defamation lawsuit, but it isn't a final trump card in that lawsuit.
The reason being, criminal cases need to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The standard for defamation involves knowingly publishing false statements about someone (and actually the standard for defamation is higher for internet nobodies like Chris). Or being completely reckless with the truth, ie making no attempt to provide reasonable evidence for the statements.
An acquitting jury is only claiming "based on the evidence available, we have a reasonable doubt that the accused committed the crime".
It's totally legal for me to say that OJ Simpson murdered his wife and Ron Goldman. The only thing his jury said was that they had a reasonable doubt that he did that.
If he wanted to sue me for libel, he couldn't claim that I'm knowingly publishing false claims about him just because his jury said they had "reasonable doubts" that he did it.
Until I violate the much stricter standard of "knowingly publishing false statements", I have a first amendment right to disagree with those reasonable doubts and to discuss them publicly.
In fact, he was sued and held civilly responsible for those deaths despite the criminal acquittal.