Case Name: United States v. Sally McDowell
Court: United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1834-03
Citations: 4 Cranch 423
Docket Number: 
Parties: United States v. Sally McDowell.
Judges: 
Reporter: Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia (District of Columbia - reported by Mackey)
Volume: 4
Pages: 423–423

Head Matter:
United States v. Sally McDowell.
Upon an indictment for keeping a house of ill fame, evidence may be given of the ill fame of its inhabitants, but the witness will not be required to disclose their names.
The attorney of the United States will not be permitted to prove that his own witness is a woman of ill fame.
Indictment for keeping a bawdy-house.
Mabala Tennison, a witness for the United States, had stated that she had lived in the house, and was asked what other women lived there.
Mr: W. L. Brent, the defendant’s counsel,
objected to the question, and cited Hodgkins’s case, Russel, 619.
Mr. Key, for the United States,
then called a witness to prove that his witness, Mahala Tennison, was a woman of ill fame.

Opinion:
The Court
(nem. con.) overruled the objection, but refused (Cranch, C. J., doubting,) to require the witness to disclose the names of the women ; because the persons, if named, would have no means of repelling the infamy which it would cast upon them.
Mr. Brent, for the defendant, objected, and
The Court (nem. con.) sustained the objection.
Verdict, not guilty.