You have a wonderful daughter. She is 8 years old and has always been a happy outgoing child. But a while ago something terrible happened, she was raped. You are quite sure that the person who raped her is your neighbor. Your daughter is so traumatized she has stopped speaking, but she in other ways been able to convince you that he is the one. Unfortunately not enough evidence can be found to convict him.
You try to put your life back together. You move to another house and try to help your daughter in any way you can, but it is clear that the experience has ruined her life and that of your family.
One evening you have taken your wife out to dinner at a restaurant when you spot your former neighbor at another table. He is eating alone and looks unhappy. You quickly finish eating and leave. The next day you find out that your former neighbors wife has been murdered. Enough evidence to convict him of the murder is soon found, and at first you are very happy, finally his will get what he deserves.
But then you remember that you saw him in the restaurant at the time of the murder. you know he did not murder his wife. Maybe he paid someone else to do it… You remember that the police said that it had been made it look like a burglary, maybe it was…
You sit down to think. If you keep quiet he will be convicted for the murder, and the real murderer will go free If you give him an alibi, he will go free, but you can’t be sure the real murderer will be found, and it is possible that the evil bastard paid someone to do it…
What do you do?
If he paid someone to kill his wife, there is little chance he'd have reason to kill again, but the chances of the police finding the real killer when all evidence points to the husband is slim. I... I wouldn't say a word. The thought that free, he may rape someone else, is stronger than the moral obligation towards both him and the deceased wife.
ReplyDeletedon't give false testimony. forgive. pray for those who persecute you.
ReplyDeleteThat's easy to say anon, but could you really stick to that?
ReplyDeleteNo one should be punished for a crime he did not commit, and even if he goes unpunished for the crime he actually did commit, he is still innocent in this regard. For that matter, there are laws about withholding evidence from the law, and if the authorities discovered you had such crucial evidence in your testimony, you yourself would find yourself in legal trouble.
ReplyDeleteTheoretically I would tell the police the truth. The two have nothing to do with one another. Yes, he may have raped my daughter and justice was not served. However, it would be my duty to be his alibi in the case of his wife's murder.
ReplyDeleteRealistically, he wouldn't have lived long enough for any of this to happen. I would have beaten him into vegetable when the rape conviction didn't hold.