Commonwealth v. Nefus

This was an indictment for adultery. The questions presented relate to the admission of certain communications in cipher, supposed to have been written by the defendant, and by the woman with whom the adultery was charged to have been committed.

1. The competency of an expert to testify in respect to the identity of handwriting with an established standard depends very much upon the discretion of the presiding judge, and an exception to his decision will rarely be sustained. In this instance, the witness testified that he had seen the defendant write once, and that for twenty years he had been…