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84 Mass. 517

Commonwealth v. Smith

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided October 15, 1861

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1861-10-15

Indictment for malicious mischief, by injuring the sloop Taloola. At the trial in the superior court, before Rockwell, J., it appeared that the acts which were the subject of the indictment were committed in Fall River, in this commonwealth, in taking the sloop from her moorings there; and that, about two hours after the taking, the defendants were pursued in a steamboat, and were come up with at a distance of about ten miles, in Rhode Island, and the sloop was retaken.

Decided 1861-10-15

Merrick, J.

¶1The evidence of the threatening language used by one of the defendants towards some person on board the steamer which came up to the sloop in which he was sailing, was inadmissible. It occurred long after the alleged perpetration of the mischief described in the indictment; and there is nothing in the bill of exceptions to show that this language was not wholly the result of an altercation which occurred between *518the parties at the moment when it was uttered. It is not connected by any circumstance or allusion with the supposed misconduct of any one in breaking, defacing or injuring the sloop, which is the substance of the charge against the defendants; and therefore it should not have been allowed to be made a part of the evidence in the case. It had a manifest tendency to prejudice one, and perhaps all of the defendants, in the estimation of the jury, and, being inadmissible, should have been excluded; The exceptions taken by the defendants must therefore be sustained.

¶2As a new trial must for this cause be directed, it is thought unnecessary to consider the other questions presented in the bill of exceptions.

¶3Exceptions sustained.

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