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Be good to your pets. They may finger your killer someday. At least, that's what one attorney in a French murder case hoped. He called to the courtroom witness stand the dog owned by a murder victim. The lawyer hoped that the dog would recognize and identify the killer:
During a recent preliminary hearing the judge called a nine-year-old Labrador named Tango to the witness stand in an attempt to confirm the allegations against his master’s presumed killer, RTL radio reported.
The judge ordered the suspect to threaten the canine with a bat, with the idea being that Tango’s reactions could be used to identify or rule out the suspect. And in a nod to the scientific method of keeping tests fair, a second dog named Norman, of the same age and breed as Tango, was brought in to serve as the 'control group'.
Perhaps not surprisingly the suspect’s lawyer, Gregoire Lafarge, said the whole thing was totally absurd.
“So if Tango lifted his right paw, moved his mouth or his tail, is he recognizing my client or not?’ Lafarge told RTL. “I find it very troubling for the French legal system. If a judge ignores the demands of reason and surrounds himself with experts who are unreasonable, well the system becomes very dangerous.”
The experiment ended up being a total failure and Tango and Norman were allowed to return to their dogs’ lives.
-via Dave Barry