Oliver v. Commonwealth
Supreme Court of Virginia
Error to judgment of circuit court of Bedford county, rendered March 2d, 1883, affirming judgment of county court of said county, sentencing John W. Oliver to imprisonment in the pententiary for a term of three years, as accessory before the fact to the crime of feloniously burning a depot of the Eichmond and Alleghany Eailroad Company, in said county.
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Error to judgment of circuit court of Bedford county, rendered March 2d, 1883, affirming judgment of county court of said county, sentencing John W. Oliver to imprisonment in the pententiary for a term of three years, as accessory before the fact to the crime of feloniously burning a depot of the Eichmond and Alleghany Eailroad Company, in said county. The evidence tended to show that Oliver employed two hoys, aged respectively, nine and fourteen years, with whom he had heen intimate, to burn said depot, against the keeper whereof he had a grudge. After the younger had been arrested, he told…
1Opinion of the Court
Lewis, P.,
delivered the opinion of the court.
The first question to be determined (and which is the subject of the first, second, and fourth bills of exception) relates -to the competency as witnesses of John Williams and Preston Matheny, the alleged principals in the felony charged in the indictment, and aged, respectively, nine and fourteen years. At the trial they were called and testified for the commonwealth. Their competency is denied by the plaintiff in error, on the ground of their confessed guilt of the felony charged, and because of their *592want of understanding of the nature and moral…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Hunter v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1850
- Haynes v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1877
3Cited by24 opinions
- Limbaugh v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1927
- Ruocco v. LogioccoSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1926
- State v. BaldwinSupreme Court of Missouri · 1927
- Jessie v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1911
- Phillips v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1960
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