Case Name: The People vs. Richard King
Court: Recorder of New York City
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1822-09
Citations: 1 Wheel. Cr. Cas. 33
Docket Number: 
Parties: The People vs. Richard King.
Judges: 
Reporter: Wheeler's Criminal Cases
Volume: 1
Pages: 33–34

Head Matter:
The People vs. Richard King.
Can a pris_ oyer wave his pfecution felony> b7 consenting to questions that hl,3 cba" racter before the offence °°™nm ^hfch he stands chaiSed ^
Petit Larceny.
Bichard King, a sailor, lately belonging to the frigate Constellation, was put into the box for trial, charged with stealing from William Arden, a fellow boarder, and also a sailor, a sailor’s Jacket and Trowsers. The cumstances of the case, as testified by the ,witnesses, were as follows : The prisoner and prosecutor both stopped x the same boarding house, in Water-street, but occupied different rooms. One evening the prisoner came into the prosecutor’s, and took away with him the articles mentioned in the indictment, and offered them for sale at several pawn-broker’s offices, without success; telling them he had ¡30Ug[lt ^ an¿ now wanted to raise money upon them. He finally offered them to a sailor whom he knew, k)r a smak sum j offer was accepted and the bargain made.
The prosecutor soon missed his clothes, and upon inquiry among his friends, found they had been sold to one of his acquaintances ; he then challenged the prisoner wih stealing his property. The prisoner' replied that he had taken them by mistake, and that he was drunlf at the time.
During the trial, the Recorder (as the Court seemed to be embarrassed with the case) said to the prisoner :— “ Are you willing we should ask the prosecutor if you was “ ever in a simular situation before ?” Ans. “ Yes.” Question by one of the members of the Court to the prosecutor: “ Do you know anything more about the prisoner ?” Ans. “ Yes ; he stole a sailor’s jacket on board the Constellation and was flogged for it.” The prisoner replied, “ 1 never stole a sailor’s jacket on board the Constellation : I never was flogged for stealing, on board the Constellation.”

Opinion:
Alderman Fairlie.
"I think any concession of his rights, made by an unlettered man to the questions put, ought to have no weight with the Jury at* all.
The Jury found the prisoner guilty, and recommended him to the mercy of the Court.