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51 Vt. 577

State v. Glynn

Supreme Court of Vermont

Decided February 15, 1879

Supreme Court of Vermont · decided 1879-02-15

Indictment for poisoning hogs. Plea, not guilty, and trial by jury, May Term, 1877, Barrett, J., presiding. On cross-examination of Rose Glynn, a witness introduced on the part of the State, she was asked, referring to the respondent, and answered, as follows: Q. Have you ever told Samuel Stewart or his wife that you would get the old man into State prison, if you could ? A. No, sir, I never did.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1879-02-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently June 1956

12 state decisions

30187918801890190019101920193019401950decided

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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¶1The opinion of the court was delivered by

Redfield, J.

¶2Rose Glynn was a witness for the State, and was asked on cross-examination if she ever told Samuel Stewart or his wife, that she would get the respondent into State prison if she could. And the witness answered in the negative.

¶3Mrs. Stewart was called by respondent, and asked what she had heard Rose Glynn say about respondent. The court refused to allow the question to be answered, on the ground that the question to Rose Glynn did not properly lay the foundation for such inquiry — and that the question did not state time, place, and occasion. The respondent’s counsel omitted to recall Rose Glynn, but relies on the exception.

¶4The general rule of practice, to insure fairness, requires, if a witness is to be impeached by proof of inconsistent declarations out of court, that such witness should have notice of the time and occasion of such declarations. And such inquiries are so far in the discretion of the court, that it would not be error, in any case, if the court should require a particular statement of the time, place, and occasion when such impeaching declarations were *580made. Some witnesses, to insure fair dealing, would require the protection of the court, while with others it would be needless.

¶5II. It is claimed that unfriendly declarations of a witness against a respondent are admissible in chief, as substantive evidence in the defence. But the witness in.this case admitted that she had unfriendly feelings against the respondent; and such inquiry is so collateral to the issue that a court will never permit detail, but only the general inquiry whether the witness is friendly, or otherwise. We find no error.

¶6Judgment that the respondent take nothing by his exceptions.

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