Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1851

Commonwealth v. Dame

Commonwealth v. Dame
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · Decided October 15, 1851 · Metcalf
8 Mass. 384

Commonwealth v. Dame

Opinion of the Court

Metcalf, J.

It is said in the text books that persons convicted of treason, felony, or the crimen falsi, are incompetent to be witnesses. Roscoe on Ev. 78; 1 Greenl. on Ev. § 373. But the offence, of which Cummings was convicted, was *385neither of these three, and we .nowhere find that a conviction of any other offence renders the convict incompetent to testify.

In the case of United States v. Brockius, 3 Wash. C. C. 99, it was decided that a person convicted of the crime of assault and battery with intent to murder was, nevertheless, a competent witness. That case is analogous to the present.

Exceptions overruled.

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