State v. Hill

G.S. 8-57, since the 1951 amendment, provides expressly that a wife is a competent witness against her husband in a criminal prosecution for bigamous cohabitation under G.S. 14-183 “to prove the fact of marriage.” Here the wife’s testimony goes beyond the prescribed limit. This is conceded by the Attorney-General.

In S. v. Setzer, 226 N.C. 216, 37 S.E. 2d 513, this Court, conceding, without deciding, that G.S. 8-57, before the 1951 amendment, made the wife a competent witness “to prove the fact of marriage” in a prosecution for bigamous cohabitation as well as in a prosecution for bigamy,…