Case ID: mass_130/html/0279-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Commonwealth vs. Thomas H. Brown & others.
    Suffolk.
    January 25. — 29, 1881.
    Lord, J., absent.
    At the trial of an indictment against two persons jointly, if one of them offers himself as a witness, his testimony is competent against the other defendant, and may, by permission of the court, be introduced after the government has rested its case.
    Indictment on the Gen. Sts. c. 161, § 34, charging the defendants, on October 6, 1880, at Boston, with feloniously and knowingly having in their possession certain implements designed and adapted for breaking open buildings, in order to steal therefrom, and with the intent to use said implements for the purpose of such breaking and stealing.
    At the trial in the Superior Court, after the government had rested its case, the defendant Gilman became a witness in his own behalf, and denied any knowledge of said implements; and, on cross-examination, testified that, the morning after the arrest, in the prisoners’ dock of the Municipal Court, the defendant Brown said to him that he was going to claim the tools, that he brought them to the house and should claim them; and that subsequently in jail, and later when they were being brought to the Superior Court for trial, Brown had said the same to him.
    Brown objected to this testimony so far as it affected him; and asked the judge to rule that it was incompetent against him, and should not be considered by the jury. But the judge ruled otherwise.
    The jury returned a verdict of guilty; and the defendant Brown alleged exceptions.
    
      T. Riley, for the defendant.
    
      G. Marston, Attorney General, for the Commonwealth.
   By the Court.

Gilman having offered himself as a witness, his testimony was competent for and against the other defendants, as well as himself. St. 1870, c. 393, § 1, cl. 3. Commonwealth v. Nichols, 114 Mass. 285. Commonwealth v. Robinson, 1 Gray, 555. The court might permit the Commonwealth to introduce any competent evidence at any stage of the trial, even after it had once rested its Case. Commonwealth v. Blair, 126 Mass. 40.

Exceptions overruled.