United States v. Brown

Decided November 15, 1835

Indictment for highway robbery of George Milburne. The Attorney for the United States offered to examine, as a witness for the United States, one Sandy Spriggs, a free mulatto who had been convicted of larceny, and suffered his term of imprisonment and labor in the penitentiary of this district. The prisoner’s counsel objected that the witness was incompetent because convicted of an infamous offence.

Decided 1835-11-15

The Court

¶1however,

(Thruston, J., dissenting,)

¶2sustained the objection and rejected the witness; being of opinion that the execution of the sentence, without any provision by statute to that effect, did not restore his competency.

¶3The prisoner was acquitted.

¶4 *608The witness, Sandy Spriggs, was afterwards convicted of the same robbery, and sentenced to the penitentiary for four years only; he having probably prevented the other robbers from killing Milburne.

¶5(See also the Maryland Act of 1793, c. 57, § 15, by which the service and labor, imposed as a punishment under that act, have the effect of a pardon ; from which special enactment it is to be inferred that without it, the punishment would not operate as a pardon.)