I feel like that’s possibly a prelude to setting up a scapegoat. You can’t let people think he got away with it.
I think that’s entirely possible. If this guy gets away Scott free and people know he did? Expect more attempts at CEO murder.
One t in scot-free.
From Scotland, where there are 3 possible verdicts to a murder trial:
Guilty
Not Guilty
Not Proven
In the 3rd instance, we may or may not all know you did it, but the State couldn’t prove their case, so you get away scot-free.
According to this, it had originally literally meant “exempt from royal tax”: https://www.etymonline.com/word/scot-free#etymonline_v_22952