Home/Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court/Commonwealth v. McDermott

Commonwealth v. McDermott

123 Mass. 440, 1877 Mass. LEXIS 322
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedDecember 31, 1877
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 123 Mass. 440 (Commonwealth v. McDermott) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. McDermott, 123 Mass. 440, 1877 Mass. LEXIS 322 (Mass. 1877).

Opinion

Soule, J.

The defendant Malone, while held in custody, had a right to keep silence as to the crime with which he was charged, and all circumstances connected with it, and was not called upon to reply to or contradict any statements made in his hearing. No inference against him was warranted by his failure to deny the truth of what McDermott said to the officer. Commonwealth v. Kenney, 12 Met. 235. Commonwealth v. Walker, 13 Allen, 570. The conversation between the officer and McDermott was therefore inadmissible against Malone, and he was entitled to the ruling asked for. The learned judge who tried the case erred in submitting to the jury the question whether the silence of Malone was an admission of the truth of the answer of McDermott, and the entry must be

Exceptions sustained.

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Bluebook (online)
123 Mass. 440, 1877 Mass. LEXIS 322, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-mcdermott-mass-1877.