Legal Commentary

The 'Evil Twin Brother' Defense Produces Acquittal

By TChris

Criminal defense lawyers often joke about the Evil Twin Brother defense: the defendant, having been identified by multiple witnesses as the perpetrator of a crime, makes the desperate plea "My evil twin brother did it." Sadly for defense lawyers, there is a shortage of evil twin brothers in the world, making the defense a pleasant fantasy.

Except in Kuala Lumpur, where the police caught a man driving a car loaded with 166 kilos of marijuana and 1.7 kilos of raw opium. Drug possession of that magnitude is punishable by death in Malaysia.

The driver was arrested in a house at his journey's end. Shortly thereafter, his twin brother arrived at the house, where he was also arrested. By the time of trial, officers couldn't say which brother drove the drugs and which brother arrived later. The judge, noting the absence of evidence that the brother arrested second knew of the drugs possessed by the brother arrested first, reasonably decided that she shouldn't be "sending the wrong person to the gallows" and acquitted them both.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 08, 2009 (boomark / email).