Trammell v. State

CATES, Presiding Judge.

Second degree murder: sentence, thirty years imprisonment.

I

The only eye-witness to Trammell’s alleged fatal stabbing of William Causey was Pauline Bertramm. Some six months before the trial she had suffered a stroke which affected her speech. Consequently, she was allowed — over objection — to be interrogated by leading questions. Her answers were given mostly by negative or affirmative nods of the head. See Quinn v. Halbert, 55 Vt. 224.

The discretion of a trial judge as to the competency of a witness is of a well nigh irrevisable nature. Thus, in Burgess v. State, 256…