State v. Coffee
Supreme Court of Connecticut
Indictment for murder, iu the Superior Court in New Haven County. The indictment charged the prisoner with the murder of William I. Way, at Branford in New Haven County, on the 9th day of May, 1887. The prisoner pleaded not guilty, and the case was tried to the jury before Torrance, J. On the trial the State called as a witness Edwin A. Lum, who testified that he was a member of the grand jury that indicted Coffee and that Coffee was present before the grand jury.
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Indictment for murder, iu the Superior Court in New Haven County. The indictment charged the prisoner with the murder of William I. Way, at Branford in New Haven County, on the 9th day of May, 1887. The prisoner pleaded not guilty, and the case was tried to the jury before Torrance, J. On the trial the State called as a witness Edwin A. Lum, who testified that he was a member of the grand jury that indicted Coffee and that Coffee was present before the grand jury. The. witness was then asked to state what Coffee said before the grand jury in reference to the death of Way. The counsel for the…
1Opinion of the CourtCarpenter, J.
On the trial of this case the State offered three members of the grand jury that indicted the prisoner to testify to declarations made by him in their hearing-in the grand jury room. To the admission of this *410evidence counsel fot the prisoner objected, but the court admitted it. This is assigned as one of the reasons of appeal.
The objection is, in effect, that everything which transpired in the jury room is privileged and cannot be divulged. This claim is founded partly on the grand juror’s oath, one clause of which is, “ the secrets of the cause, your own, and your fellows’, you will duly…
2Cases cited3 opinions
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- Snyder v. StateIndiana Supreme Court · 1877
3Cited by27 opinions
- State v. PiskorskiSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1979
- State v. HayesSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1941
- State v. JamesSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1996
- State v. CampbellSupreme Court of Kansas · 1906
- State v. AvcollieSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1982
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