The Second Wedding

A man married, then went away on military service. After he came back the couple separated. Years later he married a second woman without ever getting a divorce. He was charged with bigamy. He said he honestly believed his first wife had divorced him: she had told him she would divorce him, she had taken out a driver's licence in her maiden name, and she had been living with another man. The trial judge refused to let the jury hear any of this, treating bigamy as a crime where the accused's belief does not matter.