Alibi witnesses

Alibi witnesses

In a computer crime case, alibi witnesses are seldom as useful as in other types of criminal cases because of the ease of remote access to computers. However, defense counsel may present such witnesses if they can corroborate the defendant's claim that he or she could not have committed the crime because he or she was not in a place allowing access to the computer in question.

The term "alibi" has a negative connotation. Therefore, counsel needs to remember that an alibi witness must be entirely convincing if his or her testimony is to be relied upon. A custodian of records for the victim company, for example, will be infinitely more persuasive than a personal friend of the defendant. In addition to the matter of obvious bias, if the alibi witness is shown to have frequently seen the defendant around the time that the crime is alleged to have occurred, it is relatively easy for the prosecutor to weaken the witness's testimony by demonstrating that the witness is not positive that he or she has not confused the events of one week with the events of the next week. If an alibi witness is used, painstaking mock examination and cross-examination is necessary before trial.FN57