Journal No. 1 (11th Week): A Criminal Trial

This is a fictitious story and the names are unreal. Some time in the 1960s, a person by the name of Mr Alfred Low was arrested by the police and charged in court with the offence of murdering his girlfriend. If the crime is proven, Alfred would be hanged. His lawyer was a phlegmatic person; he carried out a comprehensive study of all the evidences against him and argued that his guilt was not proven. A zealous person by the name of David Chang claimed that he saw the murder and he testified as a witness in court. David said he saw Alfred and his girlfriend swimming together in the sea. He said that when Alfred’s girlfriend appeared to be struggling with breath, Alfred simply watched and did nothing to help. Alfred’s lawyer argued that that there was no corroborative evidence to support the proposition that Alfred was aware that his girlfriend was about to be drown. Subsequently David admitted that he was coerced by a relative of Alfred’s girlfriend into making false statement in court as David owed him $200,000 and was unable to pay.