Hallo,
warum heissen unbekannte Tote (oder tote Unbekannte) in Amerika immer John Doe? Weiss jemand, woher das kommt?
Danke! Gruss, Steffi
Hallo,
hier die Erläuterung aus Cecil Adam’s Kolumne „The straight dope“, die sich mit der Beantwortung solcher Fragen beschäftigt:
„John Doe“ was the name used by the British to stand in for unknown parties in legal actions. Doe was generally the plaintiff, with his sidekick „Richard Roe“ subbing for the defendant. (Get it, roe and doe? Kind of a deer thing.) Use of the name goes back at least as far as the fourteenth century; there’s even some speculation that the names are as old as the Magna Carta (1215, if it’s slipped your mind), which required two witnesses for every legal proceeding. According to this story, when the wily prosecutors of the day found themselves short of witnesses, Doe and Roe were automatically pressed into service. Then, as now, no one much seemed to mind.
Quelle: http://www.straightdope.com
Und noch eine etwas detailliertere Erklärung von der ausgezeichneten Seite http://www.word-detective.com:
Fortunately, I happen to have on my shelf a fine book called „What’s In A Name?“ by the learned and prolific Paul Dickson (Merriam-Webster, 1996) which deals with just this sort of question. It turns out that the „John Doe“ custom dates back to the reign of England’s King Edward III, during the legal debate over something called the Acts of Ejectment. This debate involved a hypothetical landowner, referred to as „John Doe,“ who leased land to another man, the equally fictitious „Richard Roe,“ who then took the land as his own and „ejected,“ or evicted, poor „John Doe.“
These names – John Doe and Richard Roe – had no particular significance, aside from „Doe“ (a female deer) and „Roe“ (a small species of deer found in Europe) being commonly known nouns at the time. But the debate became a hallmark of legal theory, and the name „John Doe“ in particular gained wide currency in both the legal world and general usage as a generic stand-in for any unnamed person. According to Mr. Dickson, „John Doe“ and „Richard Roe“ are, to this day, mandated in legal procedure as the first and second names given to unknown defendants in a case (followed, if necessary, by „John Stiles“ and „Richard Miles“). The name „Jane Doe,“ a logical female equivalent, is used in many state jurisdictions, but if the case is federal, the unnamed defendant is dubbed „Mary Major.“
Gruß,
Myriam
Danke fuer die ausfuehrliche Antwort! owT
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… auch lebende… um das mal klarzustellen 