Case ID: root_1/html/0249-01.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

State v. Bennet.
    A person, notwithstanding he will be entitled to a premium upon conviction, may be a witness, unless there are other circumstances, which exclude him.
    IkvoRmatioit for passing a counterfeit guinea. Not guilty to the jury.
    One Collins was offered as a witness and objected to for the following reasons: Bennet was a minor — had obtained said guinea in a simple manner and made no secret of its being a counterfeit; that the witness had made various attempts to get said guinea, on purpose as he declared, to have Bennet convicted in order to entitle himself to the premium of £10; that he finally succeeded, by giving Bennet $2 for it; that he immediately went and informed against Bennet, and offered himself as a witness to convict him.
   By the Court.

A witness being entitled to the premium is a consequential matter, and from the necessity of the case will not exclude Mm, although it lessens the weight of his testimony; hut where a witness has acted so villainous a part as Collins by traducing a young lad into a crime, in order to betray him, from the sordid motive of obtaining the premium, discovers such depravity of heart, as would render it dangerous for a court of- justice, to admit him to testify — he was therefore rejected.