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1 Cases of Circumstantial Evidence 1850

handle is hein.trials/vvitvrdv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: CASES OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. HE records of every country abound in remarkable cases of persons being judicially put to death for crimes of which they were entirely innocent. A mistaken re- semblance to the actual perpetrator, the fact of having been seen near the spot where the crime was committed, or some other suspicious circumstance, has contributed to bring the guilt and punishment on the wrong party. At one time cases of injustice were also committed by condemning individuals for murder when it was not proved that a murder had been perpetrated. The now well-recogonised principle in cri- minal law, that no murder can be held as having been committed till the body of the deceased has been discovered, has terminated this form of legal oppression. Another, and perhaps one of the most common causes of injustice in trials of this nature, is the >revarication of the party charged with the offence. Finding hmself, though innocent, placed in an awkward predicament, he invents a plausible story in his defence, and the deceit being discovered, he is at once presumed to be in every respect guilty. Sir Edward Coke mentions a melancholy case of this kind. A gentleman was charged with having made away with his niece. He was innocent of the crime ; but having, in a state of trepida- tion, put forward another child as the one said to have been de- stroyed, the trick was discovered, and the poor gentleman was executed-a victim of his own disingenuousness. The following interesting cases of loss of life from too great a leaning on circumstantial or presumptive evidence, we select from various authorities, English and foreign. No. 32. 1

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