Justice you can count on

摘要

Shambling sleuth Columbo always gets his man. Take the society photographer in a 1974 episode of the cult US television series who has killed his wife and disguised it as a bungled kidnapping. It is the perfect crime - until the hangdog detective hits on a cunning ruse to expose it. He induces the murderer to grab from a shelf of 12 cameras the exact one used to snap the victim before she was killed. "You just incriminated yourself, sir," says a watching police officer. If only it were that simple. Killer or not, anyone would have a 1 in 12 chance of picking the same camera at random. That kind of evidence would never stand up in court.