I sent an innocent man to prison
I used to be mid-managemnt in a shop a few years back. We always had trouble with shoplifters, but one was particularly nasty. when confronted, assuming he wasnt too wasted, he would always turn violent, spit at people and try to bite. Turns out he has hepatitus and was trying to infect us. Thats the kind of charming gent he was.
Previous to the following event, he shacked up with a slightly dim but very nice girl who also worked with us in an effort to get her to steal from the till for him. Within weeks he had her hooked on drugs, infected with god-knows what and we had been forced to fire her when her clumsy efforts at theft were discovered. He fucked her life up good and proper.
He came into the shop a few months later, rather stoned and making a poor effort at shoplifting. He was thrown out. He came back 30 mins later and was thrown out again. this continued hrought the morning till I came in to work for the afternoon shift. I confronted him and with one of the other staff who was a bit of a hard-case, we subdued the scumbag and took him to the office. It should be noted that he hadnt actually stolen anything at this point.
I pressed the panic button which summons immediate police assistance in the case of emergency. We had the guy tied to the desk with cable ties so my workmate asked wtf I had pressed the button for. While waiting for the police I explained my plan, which he was happy to go along with.
I got an old Stanley knife from the shops tool kit, wiped it clean and we pressed it into his hands, covering it with his finger prints. When the police turned up (tyres screeching, sirens blaring, rolling over the bonnet like a proper cop-show!) we told them we had repeatedly warned the guy off but he had returned with a knife and tried to stab us. The scumbag obviously denied this, but it was our word against his.
The police commented that although he was known scum, knives were very out of character for him, but reckoned he must have been desperate for his next fix.
Charges went ahead and a trial was set.

I stood up in court and lied.

We stuck to our story and there were plenty of corrobarative witnesses who had seem him being repeatedly thrown out during the morning. The knife had his prints on it. He was already on parole for shoplifting and had a string of previous offences.
He was sent to prison for 2 years.

Legally, what I did was very wrong. Morally? I think I was right. Do I feel guilty? yes, I feel guilty about lying in court.
(dave likes cheese, Mon 3 Sep 2007, 23:02, Reply)