Brain Teasers
Free Man
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
Mad Ade's Uncle Mavis is standing on the platform of a train station. As a train pulls out of the station, he sees a woman aboard it waving. Uncle Mavis runs over to the train, gets on it and kills the woman. He gets off the train, goes to police and confesses to the murder. He then walks away from the police station without consequence.
Why did the police let Uncle Mavis go?
Why did the police let Uncle Mavis go?
Answer
The woman was the Uncle Mavis' wife (Mad Ade's Auntie Natel). Years ago she faked her own death and framed her husband. Uncle Mavis was convicted and served time for murder. In the country where this occurred, a person can not be prosecuted for the same crime twice. Since he had already served time, he could not be sentenced again.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Jun 08, 2002
or she could have been wanted, dead or alive
I liked this one. It reminds me of a movie with Ashley Jud.
In which country was this?
Isn't Mavis a girls name?
This must be the USA because in the US you can not be charged for the same crime twice. Once a case is closed it is closed, and the sentence is permanent. (We learned about this in English!) This was in a movie called Double Jeopardy.
I think that law is a bit silly.
I thought she was waving a gun and he did it to save the crowd.
Wicked cool! Anyways, he'd already served time and paid his debt to society for killing her...
I think it's like that in England too. I read about that happening once.
cool good boy
i thought he lied and said that it was in self-defense.
Wow! That is a GREAT one!
You have to be careful though. Assuming this happened in the USA, where we have laws protecting against double jeopardy, there may be different degrees of murder. So if he had originally been convicted of 1st degree murder, he might have to face charges for 2nd degree murder. (I work at a law office) A great teaser though. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Mad-Ade, you have a huge (and very weird) family!
guys it took place in italy, not america
there was no clues!!!! seriousl ...a llitle more next time
This is a very clever puzzle. It sounds like a Hitchcock film!
I can't help thinking that in reality the lawyers would find some way to get you, though.
About double jeopardy: the US inherited this rule from England. It was put in the Constitution, but in fact partly nullified by the doctrine that the states and the federal government are all separate and you are only protected with regard to each one. I.e. you could be acquitted in Texas but convicted by the federal government, or in some cases another state - the "separate sovereigns" theory. In England it really did mean you could only be tried once, but they changed the law recently and in some cases you can be tried again, though it's rare.
I can't help thinking that in reality the lawyers would find some way to get you, though.
About double jeopardy: the US inherited this rule from England. It was put in the Constitution, but in fact partly nullified by the doctrine that the states and the federal government are all separate and you are only protected with regard to each one. I.e. you could be acquitted in Texas but convicted by the federal government, or in some cases another state - the "separate sovereigns" theory. In England it really did mean you could only be tried once, but they changed the law recently and in some cases you can be tried again, though it's rare.
The murder of your aunt today and the murder of your aunt five years ago are separate crimes. You can't rob a store, do your time, then rob the store again and claim double jeopardy. Same with murder.
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