Commonwealth v. St. John
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment, against Joseph St. John, Albert St. Germaine, and Eugene Bernatchez, charging the first named defendant, on May 81,1896, at Springfield, with unlawfully using a certain instrument in and upon the body of a woman named, with intent to procure a miscarriage, and thereby causing her death; and charging the other defendants with being accessories before the fact.
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Indictment, against Joseph St. John, Albert St. Germaine, and Eugene Bernatchez, charging the first named defendant, on May 81,1896, at Springfield, with unlawfully using a certain instrument in and upon the body of a woman named, with intent to procure a miscarriage, and thereby causing her death; and charging the other defendants with being accessories before the fact. In the Superior Court, the defendants St. Germaine and Bernatchez each filed a plea in bar of the indictment, alleging that he was promised and pledged by the prosecuting authority or authorities immunity and protection from…
1Opinion of the CourtMorton, J.
The decisive question in each case is the same, and the cases may therefore properly be considered together. The question is whether the immunity that was promised to the defendants by the city marshal and by Boyle, the chief detective of the police department of Springfield, can be pleaded in bar of the indictment against them. We think that it cannot. The immunity and protection which may be promised from the consequences of crime on condition of a full disclosure and readiness to testify are not a matter of right, but rest in the last resort on the sound judicial discretion of the court…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Wight v. RindshopfWisconsin Supreme Court · 1877
- State v. . MoodySupreme Court of North Carolina · 1873
3Cited by30 opinions
- Commonwealth v. HarrisMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1973
- Smith v. StateCourt of Appeals of Georgia · 1947
- Commonwealth v. BentonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1969
- People v. GallegoMichigan Supreme Court · 1988
- Hammers v. StateSupreme Court of Arkansas · 1977
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