Who Is Edwin's Murder?

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Recommended: How evidence is important part in the criminal justice system

In court cases, witnesses are depended on for providing reliable, factual, and concise evidence. The witnesses’ account of the crime or crime scene can completely sway the verdict; therefore, it is vital that a witness is thoroughly investigated by the law before providing evidence. In Peter Ustinov's "There Are 43,200 Seconds in a Day", police pressure a simple man named Edwin Applecote into going on the stand in the case of his neighbor’s murder. He provides an invalid and confusing testimony, saturated with ambiguous statements that jeopardize credibility of the case. Edwin’s unreliable testimony proves to be similar to that of David Gallagher, who accused two priests and a Catholic schoolteacher of sexual assault in 2011. This case became better known under the pseudonym of “Billy Doe”. After sending the …show more content…

When he is pressured into going on the stand as a witness for the trial of his neighbor’s murder, since he is not clearly investigated, he causes more harm than help. If the police investigated Edwin, they would know that he knew nothing definite about the day, location, or victim of the crime. When Edwin goes on the stand, his fickle, uncertain ideas debilitate the evidence provided, and leave the judge uninfluenced and confused. He states that, in testifying in a murder case, he does “not like to speak ill of people” (Ustinov, 375). It would not take an extensive investigation to understand that Edwin is completely incapable of serving as a viable witness in such a grim case. Following Edwin’s flurry of useless accounts, the judge states to Edwin, “…your evidence here today has been…the most misleading and the most illogical” (Ustinov, 381). If the police investigated Edwin, and did not pressure him as the “key witness”, the verdict would have been reached more

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