Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

71 Ala. 376

Yarbrough v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1882

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1882-12-15

Tried before Hon. H. D. Clayton. Fed Yarbrough, defendant in the court below, was indicted, tried, and convicted for carrying a pistol concealed about his person.

Relies on McHugh v. State · Martin's v. Martin

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1882-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently April 1986

8 state decisions

2018821890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

BRICKELL, C. J.

¶1As affecting credibility, it is permissible, on cross-examination, to inquire of a witness concerning his relations to the parties, or to the subject-matter of controversy, or as to the feelings of sympathy, or partiality, or hostility which he may entertain, or may have expressed towards the *377party introducing bim, or against whom he is introduced. If the witness, as in the present case, admits that he is unfriendly, or that his feelings are not kind to the party against whom he is called, the degree of his unkindness, or want of friendly feeling ought to be made known , to the jury; for the same credit might not be attached to his testimony, if there was avowed hostility, that could properly attach to it, if there was mere indifference, or a mere absence of kind and friendly feeling. The expression or declaration of hostility, and a willingness to incur pecuniary loss to accomplish the personal disgrace and personal suffering of the party against whom he is testifying, it may be, will cause the jury to pause, before yielding full belief to his evidence. There seems to us no reason for doubt, that the court below erred in refusing to permit the inquiry to be made of the witness, which was embodied in the question propounded.-Martin v. Martin, 25 Ala. 201; McHugh v. State, 31 Ala. 317; 1 Green. Ev. § 450; 1 Whart. Ev. § 566.

¶2Beversed and remanded.

/71/ala/376 · .json · Public domain