Case ID: root_1/html/0485-01.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. Gardner.
    Information for the adultery of the wife, the husband cannot be a witness.
    
      A person who has been convicted of a theft excluded from testifying.
    INFORMATION for adultery, committed with Anna Clark, the wife of Samuel Clark. Trial to the jury.
    The attorney for the state offered Samuel Clark the husband of said Anna, as a witness, to prove the fact. He was objected against, that the guilt of the prisoner necessarily involved the guilt of the said Anna, who was the wife of said Samuel; and that the husband cannot be a witness for or against his wife.
   By the Court.

He cannot be admitted. In a prosecution against the wife, clearly he could not be a witness, and in testifying to the criminality of the prisoner he must necessarily testify to the criminality of his wife; further he may be interested in laying a foundation by his testimony, for a divorce.

A woman was then offered as a witness, who had been convicted before a justice for stealing some flour, was found guilty and adjudged to pay four shillings, the three-fold damages; the record was produced, and upon objection, was excluded as being infamous.