Smith v. State

Marshall, Justice.

The appellant was convicted of murdering his wife, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. In this appeal, his sole argument is that the trial judge abused his discretion in ruling that the appellant’s two stepdaughters, ages eight and nine at the time of trial, were competent to testify.

The test for determining the competency of a child to testify as a witness is enunciated in Jones v. State, 219 Ga. 245, 246 (132 SE2d 648) (1963): “The statutory test, Code § 38-1607, of the competency of a child to testify as a witness in a court of justice is that he understand the…