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58 N.H. 152

State v. Tappan

Supreme Court of New Hampshire

Decided August 5, 1877

Supreme Court of New Hampshire · decided 1877-08-05

Indictment, upon Gen. St., c. 259, s. 3, for attempting to procure certain persons to commit perjury. The indictment sets forth the testimony which the defendant is accused of attempting to procure, but does not expressly aver that it was material. The facts alleged show that it probably was, but not that it must have been, material.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1877-08-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently July 1968

4 state decisions

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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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Doe, C. J.

¶1 The statute might be violated by an attempt to procure the commission of perjury, without a specification of the desired testimony. If the defendant did not know what particular evidence he wanted, its materiality might be proved. It would not be presumed that he wanted, and intended and was understood to solicit, proof of something immaterial. But, whether the evidence solicited is known or unknown, and whether it is or is not set forth in the indictment, its materiality must be proved, and must- be alleged expressly, or otherwise. The allegation of facts which show that the testimony probably was material, is not sufficient.

¶2 Demurrer sustained.

Bingham, J., did not sit.
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