The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-05-13
An Alibl is Hard to Prove.
From the Boston Herald.

FROM the BOs ton Hcrslu.
Ii will be remembered that the SEN
ior Weller recommended that an alibi
be set up by the defense in the cele-
brated case Of Bardell vs.. PickwicK for
breach of promise. The joke of the
recommendation was i'm its absurdity.
Seriously, however, there is great
risk in setting up such plea without
strong proof of the fact. An unsuc-
cessful attempt to establish an alibi is
always a circumstance Of great weight
against prisoner, because a resort to
that kind of defense implies an adj
mission of the truth and relevancy Of
the facts alleged and correctness of
the inferences drawn from them and
where it fails il is generally on the
ground that the witnesses are disbe-
lieved and the defendants story re-
garded as a fabrication. This is not
universally true, however. An extra
ordinary case to the contrary occurred
in an English Court in 1924, in All ac-
ton against young man named Rob-
inson, who, on the positive evidence of
many persons as to his identity, was
convicted of larceny, but afterward an
alibi was satisfactorily proved, and he
received pardon.
This plea often involves considera-
tions of the most difficult and per plex-
ing character. 1t is not an uncommon
and effort to fabricated de.ense of ali
bi by assigning the events of another
day to that on which the crime was
committed, so that the events, being
true in themselves, are necessarily con-
sistent with each other, and false only
as they are applied to the day in ques-
ton. DIR. Amos, a famous lecturer at
the London Medical Lyceum, reports
case in which a gentleman was rob
bed and swore positively to the identi
ty of the prisoner, but nevertheless a
complete abb was proved. The wit
nesses, examined separately, all spoke
of the same minute circumstances
transpiring while the prisoner was in
their company on the day and hour of
the robbery, and in particular that
church bell for funerals was tolling,
which in fact, tolled every day at that
particular hour when the robbery was
committed. The prisoner was ae-
quilted.
A year afterward the gentleman, see
ing the prisoner in little shop, went
to him and gave his word that as now
all danger was over, if he would tell
the truth no injury should happen to
him, but the contrary. The man re-
piled:
~ did rob you. The alibi was false,
and when the jury turned around TO
consider the verdict l felt a shudder-
ing within me unlike anything / had
ever before felt, or believed | could
feel The consequence was that i
vowed to get my bread in a different
way for the future, and, with that pur-
pose have got into this little shop"
In 1914 respectable young man
was tried in an English court for high
way robbery committed at Bethnal
Green, in which neighborhood he and
the victim Of the robbey resided. The
latter swore positively that the prison
er was the man who had robbed him
of his watch. Counsel for the prisoner
called a genteel young woman, to
whom the defendant had paid his adj
dresses, and she gave evidence which
established complete alibi. The
complainant was then ordered out of
court, and, in the interval another
young man named Greenwood, who
was to be tried on a capital charge,
was introduced and placed by the side
of the prisoner. Then the prosecutor
was again put into the witness box
thus addressed:
''Remember, sir, the life of this young
man depends upon your reply to the
question am about to put. Will you
swear again that the young man at
the bar is the person who assaulted
and robbed you?"
The witness turned his head toward
the dock, when, beholding two men so
nearly alike, he became petrified with
astonishment, dropped his hat and
was speechless for time, but at length
declined swearing against either. OF
course, the young man was acquitted.
Greenwood was tried for the other
crime and executed. \ few hours be-
fore his death he confessed that he had
committed the robbery with which
the other had been charged.
OF all kinds of exculpatory defense
that of an alibi, if clearly established
by unsupported testimony, is the most
satisfactory and conclusive, since il
excludes the possibility of the truth of
the accusation. A defense of this
nature is usually entertained with sus-
suspicion, however, because it is easily
concocted and frequently resorted to
falsely. 1t is essential to the satisfae-
tory establishment of an alibi that it
should cover the whole of the time of
the transaction to which it relates, so
as to render it impossible that the pris-
oner could have committed the act. 1t
is not sufficient that it renders his
guilt improbable.
Two prisoners, charged with setting
house afire, proved that they were in
bed on the night in question at II
o'clock and were found in led next
morning after the arson had taken
place, but the plea of alibi was disre-
garded because the distance being only
two miles, they might have risen, COM
mitted the deed and returned to bed.
Early in the present century an alibi
was established in French court by a
distinguished citizen of that country,
charged with murder, through the
forethought of himself and accomplice
in calling each other by assumed
names, overheard by several people
near the scene of the tragedy. One of
the people whose name had been as
sumed was subsequently arrested, tried