Heughan v. State

(After stating the foregoing facts.) Special ground 4 assigns error on the failure of the court to charge, as to the defendant’s unsworn statement, that the jury might believe it in part and disbelieve it in part. Code § 38-415 provides that the statement “shall not be under oath, and shall have such force only as the jury may think right to give it. They may believe it in preference to the sworn testimony in the case.” The court charged this issue in the language of the statute as above set out and there left the matter, which has frequently been held to be the better practice. Cœsar v.…