Ex Parte Marshall

Section 4008 of the Code of 1907 provides that no objection can be taken to the competency of a witness because of conviction for crime, except perjury or subornation of perjury, “but if he has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude, the objection goes to his credibility.” This court has several times defined the words “moral turpitude,” as used in this provision, as meaning something immoral in itself, regardless of the fact that it is punished by law. It must not merely he mala prohibita, but the act itself must be inherently immoral. The doing of the act itself, and not its…