評論
打印
He had set out to manufacture an alibi and he had succeeded only in incriminating himself. He had never fired his revolver, he said, because he was left-handed and the complicated safety catch on it made it too unwieldy for effective use by a left-handed man. "I have never fired a shot out of that gun, so help me God. I never did," Hoffman stated, leaning forward in his chair and addressing his words to the jury.
他著手偽造了不在場的證明，卻只是成功地把自己變成了罪犯。他說，他從未開過自己的槍，因為他是個左撇子。槍的保險栓很復雜，這使得一個左撇子用起來很不靈便。霍夫曼在椅子上把身體向前探了探，向陪審團陳述道：“我從未用它開過一槍，確確實實沒有。我從來沒有。”
There still remained Hoffman's gun, which the famous expert had identified positively as the murder weapon. Now he repeated his opinion that the fatal bullets had been fired from Hoffman's .25 Colt. This was supported by Colonel Roy Jones, an official of the Smith and Wesson Arms Company.
但霍夫曼的槍仍存有疑問，那位著名的專家已經明確確認其為殺人的兇器。現在他重申其觀點，那兩顆致命的子彈的確是從霍夫曼的0.25口徑的柯爾特左輪手槍中射出的。史密斯和威臣軍火公司的一名官員、上校羅伊·瓊斯也支持這種說法。
Leibowitz put three equally famous experts on the stand to rebut this damaging testimony. All three gave their opinion that the bullets that had killed Mrs. Bauer had not been fired from Hoffman's gun. The marks on the fatal bullets did not correspond with the rifling of that particular gun, as disclosed by test bullets, they all stated. To make sure that the jury would be convinced by their testimony, Leibowitz invited one of them to set up his comparison microscope, in which one of the murder bullets and a test bullet could be observed together. Each member of the jury in turn walked to the table, inspected the bullets, and returned to his seat.
萊博維茨請來了三名同樣著名的專家，站在證人席上反駁這一致命的證詞。三位專家都認為，殺死鮑爾夫人的子彈并不是從霍夫曼的槍中射出的。他們都表示，正如子彈測試所披露的那樣，那兩顆致命子彈的軌跡與那把槍的膛線不吻合。為了讓陪審團的成員相信他們的證詞，萊博維茨邀請他們中的一員架起了比較顯微鏡，在其中可以同時觀察到謀殺案中的一顆子彈和一顆測試子彈。陪審團中的所有成員都輪流走到桌前，觀察了子彈，然后返回到自己的座位上。
