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108 Miss. 478

Brown v. State

Mississippi Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1914

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1914-10-15

Hon. F. E. Everett, Judge. Alf Brown was convicted of crime and appeals. The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court. Held: “The testimony of a witness cannot be corroborated by proof that he testified in the same way on a previous trial of a case in the absence of all showing that he then swore differently.” In the Washington case the witness was corroborated by another.

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently December 1936

1 state decisions

Relies on Owens v. State · Johnson v. State · Brown v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1914-10-15

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Cook, J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2Alf Brown, appellant, and his brother, Wes Brown, were jointly indicted for the murder of Will Jones. A severance was granted, and Wes Brown was tried first, and convicted of manslaughter.

¶3The first two witnesses placed on the stand by the state in the trial of appellant; Alf Brown, testified that Wes Brown killed the deceased. Wes Brown was then introduced as a witness for the state, and testified that he did not kill the deceased, but that Alf Brown, the defendant did kill him.

¶4Appellant asked the court to advise Wes Brown that he did not have to testify unless he desired to do so. The ■court refused to do so. This is assigned as error. There is no merit in this assignment. See Wes Brown v. State, 66 So. 288.

¶5On direct examination of Wes Brown the last two ■questions asked by the district attorney were:

“Q. I believe you testified in your own case the other ■day on trial? A. Yes,, sir. Q. Is your testimony now the same as that was? A. Yes, sir.”

¶6Timely objection was made to the questions and answers, and the objections were overruled. This was manifest error, and may have seriously prejudiced the defendant. Boyd v. State, 84 Miss . 414, 36 So. 525; Owens v. State, 82 Miss. 18, 33 So. 718, 21 L. R. A. (N. S.) 782; Johnson v. State, 80 Miss. 798, 32 So. 49.

¶7Reversed and remanded.

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