In Canada, a discharge is a sentence passed in criminal court whereby an individual is found guilty of an offence but is deemed not to have been convicted.
Malaysia's Criminal Procedure Code allows for a magistrate in a summary trial to make a discharge amounting to an acquittal under section 173(g) if the court considers the charge to be groundless.
In contrast, the public prosecutor may apply to the court for discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) under section 254.
[5][6] For example, in 2020, Riza Aziz was discharged not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) from five money laundering charges over US$248 million (RM1.25 billion), he had misappropriated from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
In England and Wales, a conditional discharge is a sentence vitiating the finding of guilt in which the offender receives no punishment if in a period set by the court (not more than three years), no further offence is committed.
Exceptionally, however, a court occasionally grants an absolute discharge for a very serious offence when presented with extenuating circumstances (the signalman in the Thirsk rail crash, who was found guilty of manslaughter, is an example).
In 2015, Hubert Chesshyre was found to have sexually abused a choirboy, but a stroke and the onset of dementia made the court find that he was deemed unfit to plead and he was granted an absolute discharge.
A court may grant a discharge only if it is "inexpedient to inflict punishment" and may not do so where a mandatory sentence applies, including certain firearms offences and "three strikes" offenders.
However, section 246 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 provides that in dealing with cases other than where the sentence is fixed by law (such as murder): Section 247 further provides that an absolute discharge shall be deemed not to be a conviction for any purpose other than the purposes of the proceedings in which the order is made and of laying it before a court as a previous conviction in subsequent proceedings for another offence, and shall in any event be disregarded for the purposes of any enactment which imposes any disqualification or disability upon convicted persons, or authorises or requires the imposition of any such disqualification or disability.