Can the defense claim that the defendant isn&#39;t the defendant? And if so, how is the case handled?
<blockquote>
<p><em>&quot;I object, Your Honor.
What precedent are we setting here?
That the defendant isn't actually the defendant?&quot;</em> <br/>
— An American Pickle (2020)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Suppose that a man that society identifies as Herschel Greenbaum is put on trial for a crime that Herschel Greenbaum allegedly committed. However, his attorney claims that the defendant is not Herschel Greenbaum, but another person, Ben Greenbaum, and thus he is innocent.</p>
<p>Would such a defense be possible? If so, how the trial would be handled?</p>
<p>My perplexity is that the purpose of a trial is to establish the innocence or guilt of the defendant, not to establish that the person in the courtroom is the actual defendant.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> It seems that my question is somehow unclear. To make it more clear, you can image that the prosecutor has very compelling evidences against Herschel Greenbaum, and that the judge, the jury, and even the defense are quite convinced that Herschel Greenbaum is guilty. Can the defense prove that the man in the courtroom is not the real Herschel Greenbaum? If so, what happens? Is the verdict: &quot;Herschel Greenbaum is not guilty,&quot; or is it: &quot;Ben Greenbaum is not guilty,&quot; or is there no verdict and the trial is canceled, since the defendant was the wrong man, or something else?</p>

<p>This is, in effect a defense of mistaken identity, and an assertion that the person on trial is not in fact the person who committed the crime.</p>
<p>It is not legally significantly different from a case where the defendant claims that a witness has identified the wrong person.</p>
<p>Exactly how the defense would be conducted would depend on what evidence establishes that &quot;Herschel Greenbaum&quot; committed the crime, and what evidence establishes (or disproves) that the defendant on trial is that same  Herschel Greenbaum.</p>
<p>The purpose of a trial is to establish or fail to establish the guilt of the person actually on trial, normally the person present in the courtroom. (trials do not establish innocence in the US). &quot;The defendant&quot; is the person actually on trial, even if an incorrect name has been used in bringing the charge. In such a case people would need to be careful about evidence that applies to a person <strong>named</strong> &quot;Herschel Greenbaum&quot; but might not apply to the defendant actually on trial.</p>

united-states trial identification law-in-fiction