Commonwealth v. McGurty
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment on the St. of 1884, c. 299, § 43,* alleging that the defendant, on December 14,1886, at Boston, at the annual municipal election of said city, wilfully, maliciously, unlawfully, and with intent to cheat and defraud, altered a ballot then and there cast for a certain officer, to wit, for Nelson S. Wakefield for alderman of said city, by then and there, with a certain lead pencil, drawing lines and marks across the words and name Nelson S. Wakefield.”
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Indictment on the St. of 1884, c. 299, § 43,* alleging that the defendant, on December 14,1886, at Boston, at the annual municipal election of said city, wilfully, maliciously, unlawfully, and with intent to cheat and defraud, altered a ballot then and there cast for a certain officer, to wit, for Nelson S. Wakefield for alderman of said city, by then and there, with a certain lead pencil, drawing lines and marks across the words and name Nelson S. Wakefield.” Trial in the Superior Court, before Blodgett, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions, in substance as follows : The government called as…
1Opinion of the CourtC. Allen, J.
1. It was impossible to produce the ballot at the trial, because it had been destroyed by the city clerk, as required by the St. of 1884, c. 299, § 26. It is now objected, that such destruction must be deemed to have been the act of the prosecutor, namely, the government, and that therefore the government could not properly be allowed to introduce secondary evidence of what the ballot was. But a destruction of ballots, under this general provision of law, cannot be deemed a wrongful or negligent destruction of a document, or one which involves any fault upon the part of the government or its…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Commonwealth v. SnellMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1807
3Cited by4 opinions
- Commonwealth v. JohnsonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1908
- Swift v. Board of Registrars of VotersMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1932
- Commonwealth v. RyanMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1892
- Banks v. Election Commissioners of BostonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1951