Philosophy 2080 : Mistakes
7 Feb 2012
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Case y at the summer assizes at carlisle in 1888 the prisoner martha ann tolson was convicted of bigamy. That the marriage of the prisoner to tolson took place 1880 tolson deserted her in 1881. And her father made inquiries about hi and learned from his elder brother and from general reports that he had been lost in a vessel bound for america. Husband of the prisoner was dead would not a defence to a charge of bigamy. The jury convicted the prisoner they thought that she in good faith on reasonable grounds believed her husband to be dead at the time and sentenced her only to one day s imprisonment. Identically language may thus be legitimately construed in two opposite senses and is sometimes held to imply that there is and sometimes that there is not an offence when the guilty mind is absent y. In my opinion therefore, this conviction ought to be quashed.
