Haley v. State
Supreme Court of Arkansas
Appeal from Perry Circuit Court; Robert /. Lea, Judge; The admission of the declaration of Florence Brown was erroneous because by reason of her infancy she was not a competent witness and there was no showing that she had conception of the legal and moral obligation of an oath. 1 Greenleaf on Evidence (15 ed.), 504, § 367; Bradner on Evidence (2 ed.) 135, § 5; 10 Cal. 66; 28 La.
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Appeal from Perry Circuit Court; Robert /. Lea, Judge; The admission of the declaration of Florence Brown was erroneous because by reason of her infancy she was not a competent witness and there was no showing that she had conception of the legal and moral obligation of an oath. 1 Greenleaf on Evidence (15 ed.), 504, § 367; Bradner on Evidence (2 ed.) 135, § 5; 10 Cal. 66; 28 La. Ann. 327; 10 Mich. 374; 23 Minn. 108; 68 Mo. 206; 16 S. E. (W. Va.) 803; 42 Pac. 555; 3 S. W. 757; 11 S. W. 409; 14 S. W. 760733 S. W. 809 ; 35 S. W. 174. And especially was it inadmissible because dying declarations…
1Opinion of the Court
Wood; J.
The appellant was convicted of the crime of rape. The court permitted evidence of the dying declarations of the victim of the alleged assault to go to the jury. The Attorney General confesses that the trial court erred in its ruling. This presents the only question for our consideration. The confession of error must be sustained. “Dying declarations,” says the Supreme Court of Alabama, “according to the unbroken current of modern authorities, are admissible only in cases of homi-cide, when death, with the circumstances attendant on it, and the guilty agent in producing it, is the…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Ex parte ClementsSupreme Court of Alabama · 1874
3Cited by2 opinions
- St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. EnlowSupreme Court of Arkansas · 1914
- Winfrey v. StateSupreme Court of Arkansas · 1927