The defendant in Agatha Christie's play Witness for the Prosecution is Leonard Vole. He is accused of murdering Emily French, a wealthy older woman who had made him the principal heir to her estate. That inheritance gives the prosecution a strong motive and places Vole at the centre of the courtroom mystery.
Vole's defence becomes especially complicated because his wife, Romaine, appears as a witness for the prosecution rather than for him. Her testimony seems devastating, but the play gradually reveals that the evidence, the marriage and the courtroom strategy are more deceptive than they first appear. Christie builds the drama around questions of loyalty, credibility and whether a lawyer can truly know his client's guilt.
The play was adapted from Christie's short story, first published in 1925 under the title Traitor's Hands. Christie's stage version opened in London in 1953, and the famous 1957 film starred Tyrone Power as Vole, Marlene Dietrich as Christine Vole and Charles Laughton as Sir Wilfrid Robarts. Some adaptations rename or alter characters, but Leonard Vole is the defendant in the original play.