Why Not

Pettigrew confessed to harry and co right.

well, in one of the books-i think its 4, snape talks about using his truth potion

couldnt the ministry either

give the potion to sirius and ask - did you betray the potters-did you kill peter

and couldnt they give it to harry hermione ron, lupin and say 'did pettigrew confess to it, what did he say'

techinically this would make sirius a free man

Technically,
But the ministry doesnt want to find out the truth.

Truth is something complicated and can cause a lot of problems - especially for the ministry. It's a lot easier for them to stick to their Sirius-is-an-evil-traitor-Theory.
They wouldn't have any real advantages of knowing if Sirius is guilty or not, the easiest solution is to just kill him -> all problems are also dead 🙂 or soulless, whatever.

yeah but dumbledore cares about harry
harry cares about sirius

so dumbledore cant be too happy about dementors floating about looking for sirius!

why doesnt he just announce 'i going to give truth potion to those that were there that night'

and then do it, infront of the ministry and crowds of wizards
then the truth is proven to all, and the ministry have to clear him.

the ministry might try a memory loss charm, but wouldnt be able to get one on dumbledore, and he would go off it with them, then they get in trouble

so why not do it?

But they already believed Sirius was the murderer. After chasing him for so long, they were eager to be able to give him to the Dementors. And as Dumbledore said, the word of two 13 year-olds isn't enough, even with the Veritaserum-- as Snape had said, everyone would think Harry/ Hermione/ Ron had been brainwashed by some story fed to them by Sirius.
Also, Snape would've been the most available option for making the Veritaserum, and I doubt he'd be all too eager to do it.
Then, why would they waste time to have Snape brew the Veritaserum, especially when, as Exabyte said, they really didn't want to know the truth?

Dumbledore could whip up a good potion

and i think, that the strongest truth potion would tell only THE truth

not what someone has led you to believe is the truth.

btw-if dumbledore announced he wanted to do it, and the ministry said no you cant
people would suspect and they would maybe realise the ministry dont know the truth, maybe people would take siruius in for a night or so...

veritaserum is like a lie detector test which can be fooled by pathological liars. Fudge hints at this is GoF.

and a 15 year old boy is a pathological liar s he?

belive me, it takes years of practise that des

The ministry want to believe that sirius is guilty, no matter what the evidence says. Although JK hasn't mentioned it, there may be antidotes to veritaserum - like in the emelan universe, there is numbtongue and loosetongue. The Ministry would come up with the most outlandish claims so that it could not be proved that they imprisoned an innocent man

Originally posted by Phoenix
The ministry want to believe that sirius is guilty, no matter what the evidence says. Although JK hasn't mentioned it, there may be antidotes to veritaserum - like in the emelan universe, there is numbtongue and loosetongue. The Ministry would come up with the most outlandish claims so that it could not be proved that they imprisoned an innocent man

thats true. setting sirius black free and saying he was not guilty would call the credibility of the ministry into question.
You know how Fudge acts, guys 😛

or - is supposed to act

Good thoughts (sauron).........gotta love JK for keeping the suspense built up.

😉

Don't make him feel too good, angel 😛

Originally posted by The Innkeeper
Dumbledore could whip up a good potion

and i think, that the strongest truth potion would tell only THE truth

not what someone has led you to believe is the truth.

You cant state THE truth if you dont know it yourself, so a person who has been told a convincing lie would most likely believe it to be the truth, and in their mind it IS the truth.

Originally posted by The Innkeeper
Pettigrew confessed to harry and co right.

well, in one of the books-i think its 4, snape talks about using his truth potion

couldnt the ministry either

give the potion to sirius and ask - did you betray the potters-did you kill peter

and couldnt they give it to harry hermione ron, lupin and say 'did pettigrew confess to it, what did he say'

techinically this would make sirius a free man

y would they? i mean, a) they dont know if pettigrew is still alive and b) they wouldnt waste time giving it 2 them. the ministry have pretty convincing evidence that sirius did it. every1 believed that sirius handed the potters over 2 voldemort because of the evidence that was stated but we realized that it was pettigrew that was hiding. and they wouldnt waste time questioning sirius! he was in azkaban 4 twelve years. they'r not just gonna pull him out and start asking questions on whether or not he did that.

Could you reduce that to factoids without resorting to numerals?

confused

i agree with everyone...😄

THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC DONT WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH *excuse my capitals 🙂 *

they dont care about who can put a good potion up....

they just want the problem fixed and gone....thats all that matters...i know it sounds sukful and yea yea people need a chance and blah blah blah but thats not how the Wizarding World runs....everythings straight up and no strings attached 😄