Case Name: Neale v. Coningham
Court: United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1802-03
Citations: 1 Cranch 76
Docket Number: 
Parties: Neale v. Coningham.
Judges: 
Reporter: Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia (District of Columbia - reported by Mackey)
Volume: 1
Pages: 76–76

Head Matter:
Neale v. Coningham.
A witness who cannot testify in a cause without criminating himself shall not he sworn.
Trespass, for assault and battery, and false imprisonment.
Mr. Peacock, for the plaintiff,
produced Richard Spaulding, to prove that the plaintiff was arrested and confined in prison upon a ca. sa. issued by the defendant as a justice of the peace for Washington county, on the 28th of March 1801, on a judgment rendered by Amariah Frost, a justice of the peace of Prince George’s county, on the 24th of September, 1800. The witness objected to being sworn because he was the constable who served the ca. sa., and also the jailor who kept the plaintiff in confinement, and his testimony would criminate himself.

Opinion:
The Court refused to compel him to be sworn.
Cranch, J.,
contra. It is not an objection to his being sworn, but is a good reason for his refusing to answer any question which may criminate himself.