Alibi

Lat. In crimmal law. Elsewhere, in another place. A term used to express that mode of defence to a criminal Srosecution, where the party accused, in orer to prove that he could not have committed the crime with which he is charged, offers evidence to show that he was in another plcxe at the time; which is termed setting up an alibi.

Tondins. Foster's Crown Law, 368.

Wills on Cireumst.

Evid, 116.

This term is of great antiquity in English law, and is used by Bracton in describing the proceedings on criminal appeals, in precisely its modem sense and application. Si appellatus docere poterit — se eadem diefaisse alibi, iia quod nullo modo prasumi posset contra ipsum, quod interesse posset tali facto, tali die, propter locum ita remotum, quod hoc esset impossibiley tutic cadit intentio appellantis; if the appellee (the accused) can show that on the same day he was elsewhere, so that it can in no manner be presumed against him that he could have been present at the commission of the act on the day stated, it being impossible, on account of the distance between the places, then the complaint of the appellant (the accuser) abates, or falls to the ground. Bract fol.

140 a.