... on the strength of that alone.
Riley Morgan has been in jail for six years for the murder of Martin Kendall when seaman Burt Stokes (Max Showalter) comes forward and says that he was the alibi that Morgan claimed to have years ago. Stokes says he was away at sea all of this time and has just now returned to the United States and heard about the case. Morgan is freed and receives a full pardon. So the question is - Who did kill Martin Kendall?
So the obnoxious Stokes starts coming around the Kendall family hitting them up for handouts, claiming it is for Morgan to get back on his feet, when it is just a thinly veiled attempt at blackmail. But blackmail for what? When Stokes is found murdered it is assumed that his blackmail attempts were what got him killed.
This episode is interesting for a couple of reasons. It is revealed that a boy's mother is concerned that it will be discovered that her son was the result of a marriage that was annulled versus one that ended in divorce, because an annulled marriage never really was valid for some reason, with the insinuation that some would consider the boy illegitimate. It just shows what a big stigma this was in 1960.
Also note that Morgan Riley had been convicted of murder but was in prison, not on death row. After six years he would have been executed by now, and an alibi would not help a corpse. The death penalty was starting to be used less and less. When Perry Mason first began airing there were constant references to being on trial for ones life.
The times, they are a changing.