On 4 August, well-known local writer Gary Powell gave us an extremely interesting talk
on Cases of Mistaken Identity and Wrongful Conviction and specifically on the case of Adolf Beck (1841-1909). Beck had been born in Norway but then lived in South America and then the UK. He had become wealthy and then bankrupt. In 1895 he was falsely accused by a woman who had been swindled out of jewellery by a third party. Other women made similar accusations and Beck was taken to court and charged.To those charges were added similar other ones concerning a certain ‘John Smith’ who had committed similar offences in 1877.Beck’s defence lawyers argued that there were discrepancies in the prosecution’s case: for example, Beck had no facial scar whereas the plaintiffs had argued that their swindler had had just such a scar.
Beck was given a sentence of seven years, of which he served five. He received a King’s Pardon in 1904. It was revealed that there had been misdoings in the presentation and non-presentation of evidence and serious defects in procedures. A report on the whole sorry affair led to the setting up of the Court of Appeal.
Gary had made us think carefully about how well or otherwise we can describe someone we have seen earlier e.g. in a supermarket or in a train. Nowadays, identification by just one person is deemed unsafe and technological evidence, such as CCTV records, is used much more.
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