Court Opinion

ID: 9718176
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:18:12.401278+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:57.811952
License: Public Domain

McDERMOTT, Justice,
dissenting.
An alibi defense places one elsewhere when the offense was committed, and by reason of time, place and distance renders it impossible for him to have done the deed.
However, if an accused testifies he was in Chicago when the offense was committed in Philadelphia, and offers no more than his own testimony, he has simply denied the charge with an explanation, and offers in support of that denial his credibility as to his whereabouts at the time in question. If he says he was at home asleep, at the movies, walking in the woods, in church, or on the moon, and relies only on his credibility to support his contention, he is entitled to no further charge than the general charge on credibility. An alibi instruction is not warranted because it adds nothing to the jury’s ability to test that credibility.
*168However, when a defendant contends he was not there and corroborates that contention with other evidence, the jury is then called upon to weigh that evidence in addition to the defendant’s credibility. In weighing that evidence, the jury must be separately instructed so that it will not mistakenly find the defendant guilty merely because that corroborative evidence was not accepted.
In the present case appellee offered no more than his self-serving statement that he was somewhere other than the crime scene. This limited uncorroborated evidence did not justify or necessitate a separate jury instruction or alibi charge. Moreover, to permit a defendant to have the jury instructed on an alibi merely because he says “I was not there” will encourage the unscrupulous to perjury: a defendant facing serious consequences will have little disincentive to perjure himself when he can have the jury instructed on an alternative avenue for acquittal.
Consequently, I dissent.