In everyday speech, ‘False prosecution’ is frequently interpreted to refer to the situation where someone is prosecution for a crime they did not commit. However, when someone is prosecution, four possibilities arise. The right (i.e., guilty) person could be prosecution, and through correct procedures (i.e., the right process), the right person could be prosecuted through incorrect procedures (i.e., the false process), the wrong (i.e., innocent) person could be prosecuted through correct procedures, or the wrong person could be prosecuted through incorrect procedures2. The ‘false prosecution’ could therefore refer to the wrong person being prosecuted, or where a prosecution is technically ‘false’ because it was obtained unfairly, using incorrect procedure.

In everyday speech, ‘False prosecution’ is frequently interpreted to refer to the situation where someone is prosecution for a crime they did not commit.