Scott v. State

Decided December 12, 1896

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1896-12-12

Robert J. Lea, Judge. STATEMENT BY THE COURT. The appellant was indicted with one Charles Gow-ens in the Pulaski circuit court for and convicted of grand larceny, and appealed to this court. No exceptions were saved to the instructions of the court. The chief witness against the defendant was the said Charles Gowens, who was an accomplice, and was himself convicted of the offense.

Relies on Vaughan v. State · Polk v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1896-12-12

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently September 1985

5 state decisions

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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Hughes, J.,

¶1(after stating the facts.) “A conviction cannot be had in any case of felony upon the testimony of an accomplice, unless corroborated by other testimony tending to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense, and the corroboration is not sufficient if it merely shows that the offense was committed and the circumstances thereof.”- Sand. & H. Dig., sec. 3230. • There must be other evidence tending- to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense. Vaughan v. State, 58 Ark. 365; Polk v. State, 36 Ark. 117.

¶2As there is no evidence in this case tending to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense, save the statement of the accomplice, which was not corroborated as the law requires, the judgment is reversed, and the cause is remanded for a new trial.