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7 Wash. 336

State v. Duncan

Washington Supreme Court

Decided December 4, 1893

Washington Supreme Court · decided 1893-12-04

<p>CRIMINAL LAW — CONTINUANCE — RIGHT OF ACCUSED TO BE PRESENT — CROSS-EXAMINATION OF ACCUSED — LARCENY — POSSESSION OF STOLEN PROPERTY — INSTRUCTIONS.</p> <p>The granting of a continuance, in a criminal prosecution, without the personal pi’esence of the accused, is not in violation of the constitutional provision giving the accused the right to appear and defend in person and by counsel.</p> <p>Where the accused in a criminal prosecution appears as a witness in his own behalf, and the whole purpose of his testimony is to show that he is not guilty, although he is not asked the direct question as to whether or not he is guilty, it is proper cross examination, as tending to affect the credibility of the witness, to question him relative to his flight soon after the crime was committed. (Stiles, J., dissents.)</p> <p>When the defendant in a criminal prosecution takes the witness stand, he assumes the character of a witness; and as such is subject to be contradicted, disputed, or impeached, the same as any other witness; and cross examination for that purpose is not prohibited by the constitutional provision that “no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to give evidence against himself.”</p> <p>Under §1189, Code Proc., abrogating the distinction between an accessory before the fact and a principal, a defendant may be convicted under an information charging him with the commission of a larceny as principal, although the evidence shows that he was not present at the time the taking was done, but advised and counseled it with the intention of receiving the benefits of the property taken.</p> <p>Where a defendant has requested the court to charge the jury that “the bare possession of stolen property, alone, is not sufficient to sustain a verdict of guilty,” it is not error, as being a violation of the constitutional prohibition against judges charging the jury with respect to matters of fact, for the court to give the instruction with the following addition: “It is only a circumstance tending to show guilt.”</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1893-12-04

How this case has been cited

Cited by 32 later decisions — most recently March 1992 · most notably Commonwealth v. Millen (1935), State v. Steeves (1896)

4 federal appellate · 25 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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Anders, J.

¶1(concurring). I think the cross examination of the defendant in this case was not carried beyond legitimate bounds. Whenever a defendant becomes a witness to disprove a criminal charge, he thereby subjects himself to the same liabilities in cross examination as does any other witness, and may be cross examined as to any pertinent matters, even although such testimony may tend to criminate him. The statute authorizing parties charged with offenses to. testify in their own behalf was never intended to enable them to testify as to facts tending to disprove guilt, and, at the same time, to suppress other facts tending to shake their credibility, or to throw additional light upon, or give color to, facts and circumstances detailed in the examination in chief. The object of all testimony is to elicit the truth; and experience has shown that it is only by cross examination that the whole-truth can be discovered. No one can be compelled to give evidence against himself, nor can any one accused of crime be compelled to testify in his own behalf, and, if he does not see fit to do so, it is the duty of the court to charge the jury that no presumption of guilt arises therefrom. But when a person charged with the commission of an offense voluntarily assumes the character of- a witness, he waives his constitutional protection to the extent, at least, of being cross examined according to the rules of evidence. And if he states facts tending to prove his innocence, it seems to me that it would be contrary to every considei'ation of justice to permit him to refuse to state other facts connected with the offense which might tend to show the falsity of his testimony in chief. No one would contend *343that he could not be compelled to answer whether he had not made declarations out of court contrary to his testimony on the witness stand, and I am unable to understand, upon principle or reason, why he should be permitted to refuse to state whether he had not acted contrary to his declarations as a witness.

¶2The objection that the court’s modification of the instruction requested by the defendant was in contravention of § 16, art. 4 of the state constitution, is without foundation, for the reason that all that was added thereto was plainly implied in the instruction as originally presented to the court. I see no error in the record, and think the judgment ought to be affirmed.

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