Legal Question: If your DNA is the same, can you get framed?
This question comes from Jamie via the form. Jamie asks:
Say we lived in one of the many fictional universes where doppelgängers exist. If my doppelgänger commits a crime, could I be charged for it?
Thanks for the question, Jamie! We covered doppelgängers in our February 2021 minisode on Patreon. As we discuss, the word doppelgängers originated in a 1796 novel written in Germany. The mischievous double in that book convinced the novel's protagonist to fake his own death. The doppelgänger in your question sounds like an even more nefarious form of this ancient concept.
COULD YOU BE CHARGED FOR YOUR DOPPELGÄNGER'S CRIME?
To answer your question - yes. If a doppelgänger is a legitimate double of you and not just a look-alike, you could be charged. Would the charges stick? That's a different question. But you can get charged for something you never did. Sadly, that happens all the time.
But back to the question at hand - your arrest would likely be based on some form of physical evidence. That evidence could include fingerprints, DNA, or facial recognition. If you were truly doppelgängers -meaning you were 100% the same as one another - all three of those things would match. If the arrest was based on any or all those things, they'd probably haul you in.
Like we discussed on the minisode, scientists studying facial measurements have found that anthropometric measurements - the distance between certain points on a face - are just as accurate as fingerprints and DNA. So if your doppelgänger is truly out there doing crimes, you could go down for it.
BUT WOULD THE CHARGES STICK?
Maybe not. Something similar happened in Germany back in 2009. Following a jewelry heist, sweat from a glove left behind was tested for DNA. It matched two men - a pair of identical twins. Both twins were arrested, but before the trial, they were let go with the court stating: "From the evidence we have, we can deduce that at least one of the brothers took part in the crime, but it has not been possible to determine which one."
This only worked for the twins because the evidence was DNA. If it had been fingerprints, the grift would be over as identical twins do not have identical fingerprints.
In order to be convicted of a crime, the state has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime was committed by the person who has been arrested. Since whatever evidence they would have against you would also match your doppelgänger 100%, you could argue that the court was incapable of proving your guilt. How could they determine it was you and not your doppelgänger? You would probably do well to try and prove your alibi to try and save yourself.
Benefit of a doppelgänger: get out of jail free card.
Drawback of a doppelgänger: just about everything else. (Have you seen Multiplicity?)
Thanks for the question, Jamie!
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