QUEER CASES OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5656, 29 August 1896, Page 7

QUEER CASES OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.

(Tit Bits.) Many an innocent man has been hanged on some small point of circumstantial evidence. But it is equally certain that criminals have sometimes escaped because false conclusions were drawn from such evidence, and they were given the benefit of the doubt. A man who was once being tried for murder at the Old Bailey set up an alibi. A witness swore that the prisoner passed the night in question at his house. He remembered the date, because on the Tuesday previous the man had signed a receipt at the same place. The document was produced, and in ci'oss-examination the witness admitted that the receipt was written out and signed at the same time and with the same ink, there being only one bottle in the house. It was immediately pointed out to the jury that the body of the note was evidently written with ink of a different strength from that used in the signature, and the credit of the witness was destroyed. But a stronger noticed that the notes of the reporter of the trial were darker or lighter according to the depth of the dips of his pen, the ink being very bad — thick at the bottom and watery at the top. THE NOTE-BOOK WAS HANDED UP TO THE JURY, who were much interested, and, although the judge was very vigorous in denouncing this irregular proceeding, they decided the point in the prisoner's favour. Another man was being tried for highway robbery. Witness after witness swore ■ positively to liis identity, and the whole court imagined him guilty. He asserted his innocence, but kept back his defence until the very last. Then he had produced the books of the court, from which it appeared that on the day and hour on which the robbery was sworn to have been committed, the man was on his trial at the bar at which he then stood for another robbery, in which he also was unfortunate enough to bo mistaken for the guilty person. He was, of course, HONOURABLY ACQUITTED. A prisoner on one occasion protested that he was miles away from the scene of a crime at the time that it was committed, but as he was walking about alone he was unable to prove the alibi. The only thing that saved him was the tact that he incidentally remarked that he remembered he was at a certain spot in the City of London at midnight, because he noticed that the clock of St Paul's struck thirteen instead of twelve. The Court smiled incredulously, but, luckily, two persons stepped forward who were not interested in the case, and swore that they also noticed the peculiar error in the striking of the clock. The man got off. A TERRIBLE EXAMPLE OF THE DANGERS OP CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE occurred in a Flemish town in the last century. A man resolved to murder an enemy, but determined to fasten the crime on somebody else. The curate of the parish, who was greatly respected and beloved, had a habit of throwing off his walking coat and substituting a cassock when he entered his own house. The coat was hung up in a lobby that was open to friend or stranger at almost any time. The villain planned his time well, selecting an hour when the curate would be shut up alone in his study and his enemy would also be passing along a quiet lane close byPutting on the coat, and a neckerchief that he found near, he murdered his victim and took back the curate's property, concealing with it the dagger with which the crime had been committed. He then rushed off and accused the poor priest of the horrible deed, saying that he had himself been a witness to it. The coat, neckerchief, and dagger were found concealed in the lobby, all stained with blood, and although every effort was made to get the curate acquitted, the evidence was considered too strong against him, and he was executed. The wretch was afterwards convicted of another murder, and then CONFESSED HIS PREVIOUS CRIME. A man tried for the murder of a child was defended by Mr Armstrong, who afterwards came to great eminence. A worsted ball was found in the possession of the murderer. The grandmother swore it was the child's. Armstrong should have said nothing, and left it to the jury. "An ordinary ball, gentlemen, and hang a man for that ! " But he got up and cried out, triumphantly, " This is it, isn't ? Common ball enough ; every child has one/ and so on. The grandmother rambled on, half talking to herself. " Yes, Jim made it for her, and wound it round a bit of Bible in the middle." "Sh!" said the judge, the only man who heard her muttering, made her repeat it, and had the ball unwound in court. "There's a man's life on that ! " he said to the marshal, when at the end they came on apiece of book-cover with "Holy Bible v printed on it, forming the heart. And that little bit of circumstantial evidence hanged j the man. I