Commonwealth v. Charles
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment for breaking and entering the dwelling-house of Edwin H. Ball at Holyoke, on December 2, 1869, in the night time, with intent to steal.
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Indictment for breaking and entering the dwelling-house of Edwin H. Ball at Holyoke, on December 2, 1869, in the night time, with intent to steal. At the trial in the superior court, before Putnam, J., Ball and his wife testified that, on the day before the night of the burglary, the defendant, whom they had never seen before, called at the house, and talked for some time with Ball; that he had a very interesting, manly, pleasant, smooth, gentle, handsome voice, like that of one bom in this country of foreign parents, “ a York state voice;” that between eleven and twelve o’clock that night…
1Opinion of the CourtWells, J.
1. We are not prepared to agree to the legal proposition, contained in the defendant’s prayer for instructions, that identification, by voice alone, of a person whose voice has been previously heard by witnesses but once, was insufficient and too uncertain, and'that no conviction could be had thereon. The voice is one means of recognition and identification. The degree of certainty of identification by that means does not depend upon the ability of the witness to describe its peculiarities. It is for the jury only to determine how much reliance should be placed upon such testimony.
But the…
2Cited by18 opinions
- Commonwealth v. CoeMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1874
- Commonwealth v. KennedyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1897
- State v. HauptmannSupreme Court of New Jersey · 1935
- Commonwealth v. GalvinMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1948
- Commonwealth v. FestaMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1976
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