MISTAKEN IDENTITY

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2305, 25 November 1925, Page 4

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

SOME NOTABLE OASES. The extraordinary case of “Hobart, town Jack,” who was “burled” in one part of the Auckland province while he was very much alive in another, I rcca\ls, says tho Auckland “Star,” I some amazing instances of mistaken j identity that resulted in gross 1 miscarriages of justice, and were reI sponsible, oven, for innocent people j paying tho supreme penalty for i crimes of which they were innocent. I Those cases showed that the wltnessI eg who identified the innocent persons | were absolutely positive that they named the guilty parties. To quote that standard work, “Wills on Circumstantial Evidence,” illustrations are numerous to show that what are supposed to be the cleverest Intimations of the senses are sometimes fallacious and deceptive, and some extraordinary cases have occurred of mistaken personal. identity. Two men were convicted before Mr. Justice Grose of a murder .and executed, and tho identity of the prisoners was positively sworn to by a lady who -was in company with the deceased at the time of the robbery and murder. But several years afterwards two men, who suffered for other crimes, confessed at tho scaffold the commission of the murder for which the other mon were executed. A Judge’s Warning. Upon a trial for burglary, where there was conflicting evidence as to the identity of tho prisoner, Mr. Baron Bolland after remarking upon the risk incurred in pronouncing on .evidence of identity, exposed to great doubt, said that when at the Bar he had prosecuted a woman for childstealing, tracing her buying various ribbons and other articles at various places in London, and at last into a coach at Bishopsgate, was contradicted by a host of other witnesses, and she was acquitted; and that he he had afterwards prosecuted the woman who really stole the child. :, 'Theso contradictiqps,” said tho Judge, “make one tremble at the consequences of relying on evidence of this nature, unsupported by other proof.” There is another remarkable caso told by a man who was tried at Manchester for housebreaking. He was convicted. A part of tho indictment alleged that ho had been previously convicted of a similar offence. A warder from a convict prison from which it was alleged that the prisoner had been discharged on completing his former sentence deposed that the prisoner wag the same man. The accused,, who vehemently protested that a mistake had been made, elicited from the warder that upon tho discharge of the man referred to a list of marks of identification upon him had been made. The list was produced, and th o gaol surgeon was roquestc-d to take the prisoner to the cells and report what marks he had upon him. He returned with a list that differed materially from that produced by the warder. In the end the jury found that the prisoner woo not the man referred to, and ho received the mitigated sentence due to a first conviction for an offence of the kind. Two Men Tried and Acquitted There is a case in which two men were charged with the murder of another. A Mr. Storrs, of Gorge Hall, In Chestershiro, was murdered In his own house one night in November, 1908. The murderer wag seen in the kitchen by the cook, who had a good opportunity of noticing him. Mr. Slon-s, hearing a noise, came out of tho dining room into the passage, w'hore he was attacked by a man who grappled with him. stabbed him with a large knife in some fifteen or sixteen plaices, and affected his escape, leaving his victim bleeding and help, less on the floor. Ho died a few minutes later. The assault took place near a lamp, and was witnessed by his wife his niece and two servants, who all swore with more or less confidence to the identity of the murderer with the man who was being tried; and they had been very near him. But he established an alibi and was acquitted. A few months later suspicion fell on another man, said to resemble the one who had been acquitted. The same witnesses gave evidence, but the second accused was also found not guilty. Another Instance

Tho case of Adolf Beck is probably tho most remarkable in history, but it is so well-known that no good pin. pose would bo served by repeating the rather long details. A case that resembled it was that in which a youth was charged with larceny from a dwoliing-houso. Witnesses swore that ho was tho robber, and were very minute as to the clothes he was wearing at the time of the alleged offence. The prisoner was acquitted and tho real culprit caught shortly afterwards. Here is the resemblance to Beck’s caso. An Innocent man was arrested on the evidence of tlfe confident prosecutrix. The police, having the man in custody, naturally brought other folk, who complained of having been robbed, to see him. they picked him out iwth varying degrees of confidence. Where fate was kind to the prisoner as it was harsh to Bock was that the witnesses described minutely clothes which the man was able to prove ho did not have.

There are numerous other cases that could be mentioned, ell of them being positive examples of the danger of circumstantial evidence and questionable identity. So far as instances of the “Hobaxtown Jack” type are concerned, they are much rarer than those of criminal oases, but there have been coses In New Zealand whore bodies have had to be exhumed owing to mistakes being made in identity. It should be remembered that the identification of human remains is attended with peculiar difficulties consequent, upon the changes produced by death.