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What is the idea behind the concept of alibi in a legal system in which people are innocent until proven guilty?

Jennik
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    Are you deliberately drawing a distinction here between a defendant’s alibi testimony specifically, and other evidence presented in defence? – Sneftel May 07 '23 at 11:19
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    If the question is about why a defendant would need to introduce evidence (such as an alibi) when it is the prosecution's burden to prove them guilty, not the defense's burden to prove innocence, then this question is very relevant. – kaya3 May 08 '23 at 21:36

7 Answers7

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An alibi is a particular kind of defense strategy bearing on the burden of proof: here is the alibi jury instruction for California.

The defendant contends (he/she) did not commit (this/these) crime[s] and that (he/she) was somewhere else when the crime[s] (was/were) committed. The People must prove that the defendant was present and committed the crime[s] with which (he/she) is charged. The defendant does not need to prove (he/she) was elsewhere at the time of the crime.

"I had put the gun down" is not an alibi defense, "I was not in my right mind at the time" is not an alibi defense. The alibi defense is essentially a formality that clarifies the logic of "reasonable doubt" for the jury. If the defendant could not have committed the crime because they weren't there, then that is the end of the discussion.

The prosecution will introduce various facts that suggest that the defendant may have committed the crime. The "reasonable doubt" instruction is widely interpreted by jurors to involve a defense obligation to disprove that evidence, which is a reason why a number of jurisdictions have adopted a different instruction based on "being firmly convinced". Reasons to doubt prosecution evidence can be weak and highly speculative, and the courts have struggled for years to find a good way to convey exactly what "reasonable doubt" is. An alibi goes way beyond merely detracting from the prosecution's case.

An alibi is not an affirmative defense where you have to prove the claim by a preponderance of evidence. If you can establish that you were somewhere else when the crime happened, had no opportunity to have committed the crime and could not have committed the crime by another means, you have defended yourself against the charge (assuming that the prosecution does not successfully challenge the credibility of the alibi witness). And in California, you have to give notice that you intend to use the alibi defense.

Community
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user6726
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    This is a very good answer (TL/DR: it "raises the bar" for the prosecution), and only lacks the following: a solid alibi will often prevent prosecution by an eager district attorney who might otherwise believe his case is stronger than it is. This would save the defendant a huge sum in lawyer fees, and prevent the loss of many days, weeks, or months of their life for a trial, regardless that the would eventually be found not guilty. – Jeffiekins May 08 '23 at 18:27
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In most countries, the following happens before a conviction:

  1. The police believes the suspect to be guilty and passes the case to the prosecution. If the police don't believe the suspect is guilty, the suspect is not a suspect any more.
  2. The prosecution believes that they can win the case, based on the evidence, and files the case in court. This is not just a professional judgement of the guilt of the defendant but also of the sufficiency of the evidence. If they do not think that they can win, it is the duty of the prosecution to stop wasting taxpayer money.
  3. The prosecution convinces the judge or jury that the evidence shows guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

If an innocent defendant reaches step 3, there must be evidence which can be misconstrued to show guilt. At this point, just saying "I plead not guilty and there is reasonable doubt" is a terribly risky defense strategy. It gambles that the judge or jury will not make the same mistake as the prosecution.

So it makes sense to show evidence of innocence (the alibi) to rebut the evidence of the prosecution.

o.m.
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  • What does this have to do with an Alibi ? – MikeB May 09 '23 at 11:59
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    @MikeB, an alibi is evidence of innocence. Evidence of innocence should not be necessary if innocence is assumed before the law and all other evidence is evaluated properly. – o.m. May 09 '23 at 15:54
  • "In some systems, both the judge and the jury must be convinced separately." Can you list some examples of these systems. Systems that use Juries typically use them as Triers of Fact, and delegate Judges as Triers of Law. Thus, they have two separate jobs and a Judge is not allowed to make a pronouncement of innocence or guilt. – hszmv May 10 '23 at 13:03
  • @hszmv, the US. In some situations, a judge can dismiss a case before the jury decides. So first the prosecutor must convince the judge to show the evidence to the jury, and only then the prosecutor must convince the jury. – o.m. May 10 '23 at 15:33
  • @o.m. In those cases, the judge is not making a judgement of fact, but a judgement in law, i.e. the case is dismissed because the law would not allow the accused to be found guilty of a crime. In situations where the judge does this after the jury receives the case, the prosecution can appeal. – hszmv May 10 '23 at 15:45
  • @hszmv, the judge would judge the evidence would be insufficient to support the charge, which mixes the two issues. Say a motion to dismiss asks to exclude some evidence, and without it there would not be enough evidence for the case. I believe the judge can then close the case. Isn't that a judgement of fact? – o.m. May 10 '23 at 15:59
  • @o.m. No. It's a Judgement of Law. In the case that evidence is suppressed by the judge, the prosecution would make a separate motion to dismiss, because they might have other evidence that can support their charges. A Judge can dismiss charges if the prosecution fails to introduce evidence to support a charge upon the prosecution's rest, however, this is also a judgement in law (the law says you must prove this element of a crime, the prosecution never introduced evidence to prove that element, therefor they cannot legally charge this crime.) – hszmv May 11 '23 at 13:00
  • @hszmv, so you say it is a judgement of law to decide if evidence is potentially suitable to prove a crime? – o.m. May 11 '23 at 15:03
  • @o.m. No, it's a judgement of law that the evidence is admissible to a trial (Which if it's not allowed into trial, it must not be brought up in trial). It's a judgement of fact if the evidence sufficiently proves guilt or innocence. For example, let's say the murder weapon was found in the suspect's residents and the suspect has the only key. This would be evidence that could factually link the suspect to the crime. – hszmv May 11 '23 at 15:59
  • @o.m. However, the same weapon was found as a result of an unwarranted search of the property by police. The law rules that it cannot be used in trial against the suspect. The Prosecution must then review to see if they have enough evidence that they can get a conviction without using the murder weapon, which involves convincing a jury. If not, they should motion to dismiss, which the judge should grant as an independent motion. – hszmv May 11 '23 at 16:03
  • @hszmv, say the prosecution has a verbal threat by the suspect against the victim, and an inadmissible murder weapon. The defense makes a successful motion to dismiss the murder weapon. I thought the defense could then also ask the judge to dismiss the case, because a verbal threat cannot be enough. – o.m. May 12 '23 at 04:54
  • @o.m. The defense can make a motion for dismissal too. But it's not a judgement of fact, since again, the law requires the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt. That said, because we're talking about a murder, the prosecution must have one witness who heard the threat. – hszmv May 12 '23 at 12:03
  • @hszmv, I think we are turning in a circle here. I thought the defense can make a motion to dismiss the entire case after they successfully challenged key evidence and the judge can then make the decision that the prosecution cannot possibly prove the case with what they have left. Calling that a matter of law or fact is less important than who decides. – o.m. May 13 '23 at 04:27
  • @o.m. The judge cannot make the decision that the case that they cannot possibly prove the case without the key piece of evidence. That is up to the prosecution. The judge may determine if the evidence is sufficient for a trial to be had. It is the Jury who will decide if the evidence is convincing of guilt. If a judge dismisses the case, it does not mean the prosecution cannot refile with additional evidence it found in further investigation. – hszmv May 15 '23 at 12:09
  • @hszmv, if the prosecution refiles, they'd have to convince the next judge, right? But this looks complicated enough that I'll simply simplify that bullet point. – o.m. May 15 '23 at 15:19
  • @o.m. If the original judge dismisses without prejudice, than refiling of the case is perfectly legal and the original judge will have no more say in the matter (it's highly likely that the original judge will not receive the case, if they are not disqualified from hearing it at all.). – hszmv May 15 '23 at 15:56
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The phrase "innocent until proven guilty" is often misunderstood, not least because it isn't the whole phrase; it omits the the word "presumed."

An accused party is not literally held to be innocent until proven guilty but is rather presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. The primary effect of this presumption is to place the burden of proof on the prosecution.

One may indeed then reasonably ask what the role of alibi is in such a system. Why must a defendant (or a suspect) show that he or she was not in the place where the crime was committed at the time of commission? The answer is that this isn't in fact necessary unless the prosecution (or investigators) have some other evidence that tends to suggest that the defendant did commit the crime.

For example, if Alice owns a red 1969 Ford Mustang and Bob was seen to have been shot dead by the driver of a red 1969 Ford Mustang then this is evidence of Alice's guilt even though there are other possible explanations. A prosecutor can present this evidence at trial, and one response to this evidence could be for Alice to submit that she and her car were somewhere else at the time, leaving the "trier of fact" to make sense of the conflicting submissions. Alice could also simply argue that the prosecutor hadn't proven that the car from which Bob was shot was Alice's nor that Alice was in the car, much less that Alice had pulled the trigger, but you can see that this is a somewhat weaker argument. "It couldn't have been Alice" is a stronger statement than "you haven't shown that it was Alice."

In the early stages of an investigation, as we frequently see in fictional depictions, investigators use alibi to narrow the scope of their task. They may not at that point have sufficient evidence -- or any evidence at all -- to suggest that Alice killed Bob, but if they can establish quickly that Alice couldn't have killed Bob then they can save themselves a lot of work investigating Alice.

To put it another way, inspired by Sneftel's comment asking about "other evidence presented in defence," the prosecutor must present evidence of the defendant's guilt, but the defendant can present evidence to counter or "rebut" the prosecutor's evidence. Alibi is just one category of such evidence.

In a system where suspects have no obligation to respond to police questioning, suspects are not obliged to present an alibi if asked, even if they are in fact innocent of the crime under investigation (for example, they may have been committing another crime at the time). Defendants similarly do not need to present alibi evidence at trial; they may use other means to rebut prosecutors' evidence, or they may even refrain from doing so and accept a conviction for a crime they did not commit.

phoog
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    When "not guilty" verdict is delivered, it doesn't mean innocence, it just means reasonable doubt as to guilt. Thus, even "presumed to be innocent" is not quite accurate. – Greendrake May 07 '23 at 11:41
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    @Greendrake good point. In Scotland they have an additional verdict of "not proven." But whether or not "presumed to be innocent" is accurate, it is nonetheless the usual wording. I suspect that this speaks more to the fact that a court's determination of non-guilt may be flawed, while a presumption of innocence exists in an abstract realm of thought. – phoog May 07 '23 at 11:58
  • Regarding your last sentence, it could also be "hope that the judge or jury will recognize that the prosecution did not meet their burden of proof." But then the prosecution would usually not go ahead if they did not think they had evidence which paints the (innocent?) defendant in the wrong light. – o.m. May 07 '23 at 17:52
  • @o.m. that's true. A defendant indeed need not hope that the judge or jury will recognize that the prosecution has failed to meet the burden of proof; they can argue that point affirmatively without presenting any evidence whatsoever. It's also true that prosecutors should not bring charges if they don't think they have a good chance of obtaining a conviction, but sometimes they do bring charges on weak evidence, for whatever reason. – phoog May 07 '23 at 18:33
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Proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not require that a prosecutor show that there is no conceivable string of coincidences which would be be consistent with the evidence even if the accused was not guilty, but merely that any such string of coincidences be sufficiently unlikely as to be implausible.

If the defendant has a distinctive red head resembling Lucille Ball, and someone who looked like that was caught on video robbing a store, and a defendant is found in the neighboorhood fairly soon thereafter, it may be possible that the defendant had just driven into the neighborhood at the same time as someone else who looked like Lucille Ball had robbed the store, but that would generally be unlikely.

If, however, the defendant could prove that the defendant had just entered the neighborhood after performing a comedy routine in front of a large audience, and that the defendant was on stage at the moment the robbery was taking place, that would suggest that there must have been some other red head in the neighborhood, even though that would seem an unlikely coincidence.

Alternatively, a defendant might introduce evidence that there was a Lucille Ball lookalike contest in the neighborhood, and that while her hairdo might have been distinctive compared to the population at large, it would have not stood out at all from many of the other women in the contest. This wouldn't be an alibi as such, but would again serve the purpose of showing that what might have seemed an implausibly unlikely coincidence had quite possibly in fact happened.

Note that some jurisdictions may require that claimed alibis be made available to the prosecution before trial. This is done to ensure that the prosecution has a fair chance to vet any alibi witnesses, determine whether they are reliable, and ensure that the jury is made aware of any evidence that might suggest the alibi witness is not especially reliable. It would also ensure that the prosecution can identify any evidence such as video takes to determine whether they might have been falsified. A prosecutor isn't allowed to simply say in trial "We have no way of knowing for certain whether the defendant's video might have been faked", inducing speculation that it might be. Instead, the prosecutor must be given time to find evidence--if any exists--of the falsification.

supercat
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"Any person charged with an offence has the right... to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law..." (Charter, s. 11(d)).

When it appears to the defence that the prosecution will otherwise prove the offence, there will often be a practical burden on the defendant to introduce their alibi in order to introduce reasonable doubt about their guilt.

See Justice Pigeon's explanation in R. v. Proudlock (1978), [1979] 1 S.C.R. 525.

If there is nothing in the evidence adduced by the Crown from which a reasonable doubt can arise, then the accused will necessarily have the burden of adducing evidence if he is to escape conviction.

However, the burden is always on the prosecution to prove the guilt of the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt. A typical jury instruction includes a phrase such as:

Even if you are not left in a reasonable doubt by the evidence in support of the defence of alibi, you must still go on to determine whether or not on the basis of all the evidence the accused is guilty.

(R. v. Hibbert, 2002 SCC 39 at para. 55)

Jen
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  • A defendant is asked to provide an alibi during a trial. It means that there was already enough evidence to prosecute the defendant. In this case the alibi is needed to counter that evidence. Absence of an alibi does not mean that the defendant is immediately considered guilty, but it makes more likely a guilty verdict at the end of the trial.

  • A suspect is asked to provide an alibi during an interrogation by the police. In this case it is in the interest of the suspect to provide an alibi to avoid being investigated and eventually prosecuted. Providing immediately an alibi is not mandatory, but providing that alibi later without a reasonable explanation might make it appear fabricated.

userFromEU2
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  • @Rick. Doesn't sentence sound more international? Not so many countries rely on jury trials. My answer was meant to be applicable in principle almost anywhere. – userFromEU2 May 10 '23 at 12:45
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    Verdict is the finding of guilty or not guilty, not necessarily or exclusively by a jury. Sentence is the "punishment" given to a guilty person. –  May 10 '23 at 12:57
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People are not guilty if they are “proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt”. They are guilty if the prosecutor can convince a jury that they are guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Not the same.

You are not “presumed innocent until proven guilty”, you are “presumed innocent until the prosecutor convinces the jury that you are guilty”. Not the same thing. You can be innocent yet be convicted.

An alibi makes it very much harder for the prosecutor to show that you are “guilty beyond reasonable doubt”, or just “guilty”. You would be mad not to show that you have an alibi, because that could be the difference between an incorrect conviction where you go to jail, and bring let go.

gnasher729
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