Commonwealth v. Dame

Decided October 15, 1851

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1851-10-15

The defendant was tried before Merrick, J., in the court of common pleas, for selling liquor without license to Parker Cummings; who, being called as a witness for the prosecution was objected to by the defendant as incompetent, on the ground, that he had been convicted of the offence of obstructing the passing of cars on the New Bedford and Taunton Railroad by laying a log across the track, and by filling up the space between the rails with blocks and stones, and by…

Decided 1851-10-15

Metcalf, J.

¶1It is said in the text books that persons convicted of treason, felony, or the crimen falsi, are incompetent to be witnesses. Roscoe on Ev. 78; 1 Greenl. on Ev. § 373. But the offence, of which Cummings was convicted, was *385neither of these three, and we .nowhere find that a conviction of any other offence renders the convict incompetent to testify.

¶2In the case of United States v. Brockius, 3 Wash. C. C. 99, it was decided that a person convicted of the crime of assault and battery with intent to murder was, nevertheless, a competent witness. That case is analogous to the present.

¶3Exceptions overruled.