Court Opinion

ID: 9778452
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:05:02.280001+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:09.272156
License: Public Domain

DONNELLY, Judge,
dissenting.
In State v. Kodat, 158 Mo. 125, 127, 129, 130, 59 S.W. 73, 74, 75 (1900), the Court posed the question: “Is a divorced wife a competent witness against her husband in a criminal prosecution against him for an assault upon a third party, when the alleged assault occurred during their marriage?”
The Court answered its question as follows:
“It is the policy of the law that these things which are privileged during the marriage relation shall remain forever inviolable, whether the relation has ceased by reason of death or divorce; and the divorced wife, from reasons of public policy, is incompetent to testify against her husband to the same extent that she would have been had the marriage relation never been dissolved. And such, we think is the overwhelming weight of authority.”
In my view the holding in Kodat was sound in 1900 and is sound today. I would not overrule it.
I respectfully dissent.