Blanks v. State

SIMPSON, Judge.

The defendant appeals from a conviction in the Circuit Court of robbery.

The injured party, M. G. Smith, testified for the State at the preliminary trial, but was dead at the time of the trial in the Circuit Court, so the State proved, at this later trial, what he had testified on the preliminary trial.

The method of eliciting this former testimony was as follows: A bystander at the preliminary trial, who heard Smith testify there, was permitted to testify in the Circuit Court the substance of Smith’s testimony.

This was the only evidence to establish > the corpus delicti.

“It is a…