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The Detective Who Discovered HE Was the Murderer: Historic Sleepwalking Cases

Khalid Elhassan February 9, 2025 15 min

Sleepwalking - Robert Ledru commits murder in his sleep — Robert Ledru commits murder in his sleep. Pinterest

5. A Successful Defense

Statue of Rufus Choate by noted American sculptor Daniel Chester French, at the John Adams Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston Bronze and Stone

The jury returned two hours later with a not guilty verdict on grounds that Albert Tirrell was unaware of his actions at the time of the killing. As such, the defendant was not legally responsible for what he had done. In the years after the Tirrell trial, other defendants were acquitted of crimes based on the sleepwalking defense pioneered – at least in the United States – by defense lawyer Rufus Choate. Ironically, it now seems that America’s first successful sleepwalking defense might have been a sham.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.