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40 Conn. 145

State v. Dooris

Supreme Court of Connecticut

Decided April 15, 1873

Supreme Court of Connecticut · decided 1873-04-15

Information for bigamy; brought before the Superior Court for the county of New Haven and tried to the jury on the plea of not guilty, before Gfranger, J. Upon the trial the state offered in evidence, as tending to prove the alleged first marriage, the certificate below given, in connection with the evidence of one Patrick Reynolds, who testified that on or about the 17th of January, 1867, ho saw the prisoner and Bridget Reynolds, who was his sister, the alleged first wife,…

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1873-04-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently January 1939

1 federal appellate · 4 state decisions

201873188018901900191019201930decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Park, J.

¶1"We think the document which purports to be a copy of the marriage record of the accused in Ireland, was improperly received by the court as evidence tending to prove the facts stated in it. The document is not authenticated in any respect whatsoever. It purports to be a copy of the entry number twenty-six, in the Marriage Register Book in the office of the superintendent registrar of births, deaths and marriages for the district of Mohill, and is signed by Thomas Woodward in his official capacity as such registrar. But it does not appear in the case that the law of Ireland required the registration of marriages; nor does it appear that Woodward was the superintendent registrar at the time the certificate was given, if there was such record; neither does it appear that his signature is genuine, if he was such an officer. Indeed nothing appears tending to authenticate the instrument in any way. For ought that appears it may have been a forgery, got up by some designing person for the occasion.

¶2A new trial must be advised.

¶3In this opinion the other judges concurred.

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