Case ID: f-cas_27/html/1379-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "THE COURT", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

. Case No. 16,425.
    UNITED STATES v. SWANN.
    [1 Cranch, C. C. 148.] 
    
    Circuit Court, District of Columbia.
    Dec. Term, 1803.
    Competency of Witnesses.
    A slave is not a competent witness for a free mulatto in a public prosecution.
    [Cited in U. S. v. Mullany, Case No. 15,832; U. S. v. Gray, Id. 15,252.]
    Indictment for theft [against Nancy Swann, a free mulatto].
    Mr. Hewitt, for defendant,
    prayed for a summons for a negro slave as a witness for the defendant.
   THE COURT

inclined to think that the slave could not be a witness against her, and therefore not a good witness for her, and refused the summons.