LOL
I can't make the connection about the kid with crumbs on his shoes, etc. I have not, in fact, used the word "circumstantial."
Yes, it is true that "circumstantial evidence" is still "evidence".....just not very plausible "evidence" and if I ever have to go on trial for anything I certainly hope that the jurors will be intelligent enough to be able to make the distinction between "circumstantial evidence" and "direct evidence."
You may want to ask that doctor in the Midwest whose story spawned "The Fugitive" TV series and movie, about "circumstantial evidence." :-)
What I said was that there was no "direct evidence."
Big difference..... :-)
I wasn't referring "directly" to you, LOL, but since you bring it up...
All evidence is circumstantial. There is always some other explanation for anything you see. Not all explanations are plausible. Eyewitness testimony is the faultiest evidence there is. Common sense has to play into these things.
In order to believe Scott Peterson is innocent, we have to believe that someone else killed her, put her where he had been on the same day she went missing, that there was a huge conspiracy, and that he was psychic, knowing a couple of weeks in advance that she would be dead. (Again, I know you didn't say he was innocent, I'm using the in general you :-))
At one point, there were over 20 coincidences that had been pointed out. This guy either has the worst luck ever, or he's Job.
I once interviewed a convicted murderer/rapist. He told me that it wasn't his fault that the other guy killed the girl when he told him to, and that the girl wouldn't have been raped if she had just let them have sex with her. That was the very first time I ever saw a sociopath. I was fascinated. It seemed he honestly believed that he hadn't done anything wrong. I knew him when we were children--his parents used to defend every horrifying thing he did went we were kids. They were infamous among the neighborhood parents for that. When I see Lee and Jackie, I remember John's parents. They lived in complete denial too.