Court Opinion

ID: 9536878
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:08:42.533188+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:55:26.743019
License: Public Domain

DENECKE, J.,
dissenting.
I dissent for the reasons stated in Mr. Justice Sloan’s dissenting opinion and desire to state an additional ground for my dissent.
The defendant was charged with cashing a forged check on November twenty-ninth through the agency of his accomplice, Miss Nissen. The accomplice testified that she also tried to cash a forged check for the defendant on November sixteenth. The defendant testified that he was not with Miss Nissen on November sixteenth. The majority has decided that the falsity of defendant’s testimony of what transpired on November sixteenth is sufficient evidence to corroborate the accomplice’s testimony of what happened on the twenty-ninth.
In my opinion, this possibly false testimony, standing alone, is not sufficient corroborating evidence.
The editor of 1 Wharton, Criminal Evidence (12th ed), 268, § 143, after observing that false testimony may be considered, along with other evidence, states the law to be:
“* * * Taken by itself, however, such proof is not inconsistent with innocence, since an innocent, *205though weak and timid, man, sensible that appearances are against him, and duly weighing the danger of his being detected in clandestine attempts to stifle proof, may naturally resort to this mode of averting danger.”
Mr. Chief Justice Shaw made the same observation 100 years earlier in Commonwealth v. Webster, 59 Mass 295, 316-317 (1850).
State v. Lane, 3 Utah2d 23, 277 P2d 820 (1954), is a cheek case and holds in accordance with this view:
“Respondent further contends that the defendant’s denial of any acquaintance with the accomplice Hanley is a strong inference of guilt, particularly in view of his later admission that he did know Hanley.
“The fact that defendant lied does not prove him guilty, nor does the fact that he falsely denied his acquaintance with Hanley corroborate the testimony of the accomplices. * * 3 Utah2d at 28.
Goodwin, J., joins in this dissent.