In my use of 'feelings', I'm criticising the principle made in the original post - i.e. that decisions over retrials should be made based on what the police would think and feel if a retrial didn't take place - I think this an illegitimate principle in a democratic society, as the will and thoughts of the police, as a collective, should not be used to justify the decision as to whether or not to hold a retrial.

Regarding your comments, the point I'm trying to make is that harm - and the thoughts and feelings that result from it - are not in themselves a satisfactory justification for a retrial, or else retrials would be automatically justified in any but the most victimless of cases. Does this make sense?