Commonwealth v. Jeffs
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment for the manslaughter of James M. Jeffs, at Gloucester, on September 1, 1881. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Rockwell, J., the government offered evidence of statements made and evidence given by the defendant at the inquest.
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Indictment for the manslaughter of James M. Jeffs, at Gloucester, on September 1, 1881. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Rockwell, J., the government offered evidence of statements made and evidence given by the defendant at the inquest. To contradict this evidence, the defendant called one Stickney, a short-hand reporter, and editor of a newspaper in which a report of the defendant’s statements and evidence at the inquest had been published, and asked him what the defendant said at the inquest. He answered, that he could state by refreshing his memory by the report in the…
1Opinion of the CourtEndicott, J.
A witness may be allowed to refresh his memory by looking at a printed or written paper or memorandum, and, if he thereby recalls a fact or circumstance, he may testify to it. It is not the memorandum which is evidence, but the recollection of the witness. We are not aware of any case where it has been held that the memorandum could be put in evidence simply because it refreshed the memory of the witness. Commonwealth v. Ford, 130 Mass. 64. In that case, and in many of the cases cited therein, it is stated that the memorandum per se cannot be used in evidence.
In Field v. Thompson, 119 Mass.…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Commonwealth v. FordMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1881
- Field v. ThompsonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1875
3Cited by26 opinions
- Commonwealth v. GiacomazzaMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1942
- Bates v. PrebleSupreme Court of the United States · 1894
- Warfield Milo Goings v. United StatesCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit · 1967
- Bendett v. BendettMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1943
- Green v. StateCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas · 1908
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