A defendant in a criminal proceeding is the person ACCUSED of committing a crime. The term 'ACCUSED' is used to refer to the defendant, and is seven letters long. An ALIBI is an excuse or evidence used to prove that the ACCUSED was not present at the time of the crime, and is five letters long. Sacco and Scopes are two famous defendants in criminal proceedings. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian-born anarchists who were ACCUSED of murder in 1921, and their trial became a cause celèbre. John T. Scopes was a Tennessee teacher who was ACCUSED of teaching evolution in 1925, in violation of state law. His trial became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial.