评论
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.
他着手伪造了不在场的证明，却只是成功地把自己变成了罪犯。他说，他从未开过自己的枪，因为他是个左撇子。枪的保险栓很复杂，这使得一个左撇子用起来很不灵便。霍夫曼在椅子上把身体向前探了探，向陪审团陈述道：“我从未用它开过一枪，确确实实没有。我从来没有。”
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.
但霍夫曼的枪仍存有疑问，那位著名的专家已经明确确认其为杀人的凶器。现在他重申其观点，那两颗致命的子弹的确是从霍夫曼的0.25口径的柯尔特左轮手枪中射出的。史密斯和威臣军火公司的一名官员、上校罗伊·琼斯也支持这种说法。
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.
莱博维茨请来了三名同样著名的专家，站在证人席上反驳这一致命的证词。三位专家都认为，杀死鲍尔夫人的子弹并不是从霍夫曼的枪中射出的。他们都表示，正如子弹测试所披露的那样，那两颗致命子弹的轨迹与那把枪的膛线不吻合。为了让陪审团的成员相信他们的证词，莱博维茨邀请他们中的一员架起了比较显微镜，在其中可以同时观察到谋杀案中的一颗子弹和一颗测试子弹。陪审团中的所有成员都轮流走到桌前，观察了子弹，然后返回到自己的座位上。
