The Seconal Capsule Murder
| Published date | 01 January 1958 |
| Date | 01 January 1958 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X5803100104 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
CRIMINAL
LAW &PRACTICE
IN
SCOTLAND 23
rounding facts and circumstances so as to establish the necessary degree
of certainty (Hume, see page 384). In a case of circumstantial evidence
two witnesses are
not
necessary to each circumstance. As Alison, Crime
1, page 523, puts it:
'It
seems to be fixed on the one hand that the
testimony of a single witness without any corroborating circumstance
is not sufficient for the whole case; and on the other hand, more than
one witness is certainly not required to each link, however material in
a chain of evidence.' As Hume puts it (11, page 384), 'The aptitude and
coherence of the several circumstances often as fully confirm the
truth
of the story as if all the witnesses were deponing to the same facts.'
(Compare Dickson, Evidence, Section 1811; Alison, Crime,
II,
page
551).
It
is to be observed that in a case of circumstantial evidence it is
not a matter of one witness corroborating another, for each may be
speaking to a quite separate and independent fact.
It
is the mutual
interlacing and coincidence of these separate facts which can establish
the case against the accused." The Lord Justice Clerk (Lord Thomson)
indicated that he might have been impressed by the argument if law
were an exact science or department of logic, and went on to say,
"In
real life a surrealistic element is apt to creep in and the picture though
untidy and unharmonious may be a picture all the same. In the picture
which this case presents we have certain elements which make for
continuity. There is the measured stretch, the synchronised watches.
The analytical approach to the problem is over-subtle and over-
simplifies the problem. When one views the problem as a practical
issue the only risk is that the knob was not pressed at the precise
moment; in other words, that the presser was unreliable for some
reason or other. The safeguard against this risk is whether the tribunal
believes the witness and that is the safeguard which may operate
whenever a link in the chain or a tile in the mosaic or piece in the
jigsaw is spoken to by one witness only. But this just shows that the
appellant's argument depends on value rather than sufficiency."
The Seconal Capsule Murder
R. v. John and Janet Armstrong, 1956
BY
KEITH
SIMPSON, M.D.
THE pattern of homicidal poisoning has been undergoing a change
in recent years as the introduction
of
increasing numbers of modern
synthetic "tranquillisers" and soporifics has developed, placing these
powerful drugs in the hands of the public on so wide a scale that they
lie within easy reach of any would-be poisoner. Modern synthetic
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