Alibi.
Reading edition
“Alibi (al’-i-bi) n. 1. In law, a plea of having been elsewhere at the time an offense is alleged to have been committed. Hence.—a. The fact or state of having been elsewhere at the time specified; as, “he attempted to prove an alibi.”—Cent. Dict.
“If it (alibi) appeared to be founded in truth, it is the best negative evidence that can be offered. It is really positive evidence which in the nature of things necessarily implieth a negative.” Foster, J. Crown Law, 3rd Ed. p. 368 (1762).
“If any one fact necessary to the conclusion is wholly inconsistent with the hypothesis of the guilt of the accused, it breaks the chain of circumstantial evidence, upon which the inference depends; and, however plausible or apparently conclusive the other circumstances may be, the charge must fail. Of this character is the defense usually called an alibi; that is, that the accused was elsewhere at the time of the offense is alleged to have been committed. If this is true, it being impossible that the accused could be in two places at the same time, it is a fact inconsistent with that sought to be proved, and excludes its possibility,” Shaw, C.J., in Commonwealth vs. Webster, 5 Cush. 299, 318 (1850).