Law and Order: Schrodinger's Case

Scene 1.  The murder scene.

The detectives arrive on the murder scene, a crowded New York City street.  There is one man dead, shot twice in the chest, down in a pool of blood.  The shooter is in custody after having been tackled and hit in the face by a citizen, giving him a black eye.  The gunman has loudly confessed, but really several people witnessed the murder.  The police hand the gun to the detectives.  This would be an open and shut case.

Scene 2.  The victim’s home.

The detectives have the unpleasant duty of reporting the murder to the victim’s wife.  Reluctantly, they knock on the apartment door.  The door opens to the surprise of both detectives.  The victim is standing there very much alive and puzzled at the appearance of the police at his door.  They note that he is wearing the same clothes as the corpse.  They stammer a bit then ask the man if he had a twin brother.  He replied that he did not, but had a sister up state.  They ask him if he were at the address of the shooting at the time of the shooting.  He answered yes he walks past there every day to go to work.  They show him a picture of the shooter and ask him if he knows this man.  He says he does, and that he is a client of his.  He explains that he is a financial advisor.

The two investigators call their Captain to tell him that there is a problem with the case.

Scene 3. The shooter’s home.

The detectives knock on this door to have it opened by the shooter.  They draw their guns on him.  He asks for an explanation as he complies with their orders with his hands up until they handcuff him.  Then as they all calm down, the two detectives look at his face.  There is no black eyes, no sign that he had been thrown down to the sidewalk or beaten.  They ask him if he has a twin.  He answers, no.  They ask him if he had been to the address of the shooting at the time of the crime.  He said yes.  They asked him if he owned a handgun.  He said he did and where they could find it in his closet.  One of the detectives found the gun and brought it out to his partner.  It is the same gun they already recovered at the scene.  He sniffs it.  It has not been fired recently.  They take the man to the precinct, calling their supervisor ahead, telling him there is a problem with the case.

Scene 4.  At the precinct.

The police have two men in interrogation rooms they are genetically, and physically the same person, but committed a murder, the other did not.  They have two other men, genetically and physically identical, one dead, and the other very much alive.  They also have two guns, both identical in every detail, except one has been fired and the other has not.  And then the real puzzle to everyone are the witnesses.  When they interview the witnesses with the intent to get all the details of the shooting the witnesses give accounts of what they say and heard.  But, then if they follow up no one saw or heard anything.  There was no shooting.  

Scene 5. At the witness’s house.

To test the reliability of their witnesses, they question the man who tackled the shooter in his home.  They get the whole story.  Instead of leaving, they decide to turn around and knock on his door again.  He acts surprised that the police are there, as he had not seen them for awhile, and  he knows nothing about any incident in the city.  His story is consistent one way or the other as long as they remain in his presence.  But once they leave his sight, his story changes.

Scene 6. In the Captain’s office.

The two lead detectives and their captain are sitting in his office, as he finishes reviewing the reports they have filed.  He sighs, shaking his head and looks up at his investigators.  He asks for their opinions.  After a bit of silence, one of them speaks.  He brings up Schrodinger’s Cat.  Two possibilities being present at once until the probability wave collapses into one or the other,  in this case a murder or no murder.  His partner reminds him that when an observer looks into the box, the quantum wave collapses into a live or dead cat, not both.  The Captain agrees but wonders if the right observer has looked at this case.  What if they take the non-shooter to see the shooter?  Or the non-victim to to see his own dead body?  Would that make the murder disappear?

[Fade to Black]