Lightfoot v. People

16 Mich. 507, 1868 Mich. LEXIS 31
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedApril 28, 1868
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 16 Mich. 507 (Lightfoot v. People) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lightfoot v. People, 16 Mich. 507, 1868 Mich. LEXIS 31 (Mich. 1868).

Opinion

Campbell J.

Defendant was indicted for burglary. Upon the trial, one of the witnesses, in giving a narrative of what took place at the time, stated that defendant said he was the man who had broken into the house in the previous May.

The witness was then asked whether the house was broken into in May, and was allowed under objection to answer the question, and describe the breaking.

This was improperly allowed. What the witness said about defendant’s statement concerning the May burglary would not have been admissible as a distinct piece of evidence. It only got into the case as part of a narrative of what took place during the burglary for which the prisoner was on trial, and was not objected to for that reason. But the further testimony was independent evidence, having no tendency to prove anything but the earlier offense, for [511]*511which defendant was not on trial. There was no connection between the two crimes, and proving one had no tendency to prove the other. It is very manifest that the admission of such testimony must prejudice the jury strongly against the prisoner, while he can not be expected to have made any preparation to meet such irrelevant charges. The rule of exclusion is even more important in criminal than in civil cases, because the consequences of its violation are more serious, and the danger of conviction on irrelevant matter is more direct.— 2 Russ. Cr. 772; Foster, 245; Roscoe Cr. Ev. 81; People v. Jenness, 5 Mich. 305.

The defense also offered to show by the depositions returned upon the preliminary examination that two witnesses sworn on the trial had testified differently in material respects there from what they did on the trial. The court refused to allow any part of the depositions to be read in contradiction, except such portions as the witnesses had been questioned on upon cross-examination had, and as to which they had been asked whether they had not made such statements. ,

The rule applied by the Recorder was the same which is adopted where the witness is sought to be impeached by proof of contradictory oral statements. It is the rule in this state, as in most other places, that, where a witness is to be impeached upon contradictory verbal statements, the inquiry must first be made of the witness himself whether he has previously made such statements, with convenient certainty of time, place and circumstance.— Sawyer v. Sawyer, Walker Ch. 48; Smith v. People, 2 Mich. 415. But where the statements relied upon for contradiction are not verbal, the rule is otherwise.

In the Queen’s Case, 2 Brod. & Bing. 284, this subject was somewhat carefully investigated, and it was stated by the judges that it was not competent to ask a witness whether he had not made certain statements in a letter, but that, when he had admitted the letter, the letter itself [512]*512was to be read in evidence; and the Chief Justice said, “ one of the reasons for the rule requiring the production of written instruments is in order that the court may be possessed of the whole;” and he further remarks, that “the whole, if produced, may have an effect very different from that which might be produced by a statement of a part.”

And in the same case it was held that a witness could not be cross-examined concerning such statements without first ascertaining whether they were verbal or written, and if written they must be shown by the writing-alone.

It is a general rule that verbal admissions are only receivable of facts provable by parol. This is the ground upon which it has been held that a witness can not be inquired of as to whether or not he has made particular written statements. — Bellinger v. People, 8 Wend. 595; Newcomb v. Griswold, 24 N. Y. 298. And this rule applies with much more force to depositions than to private writings, for they stand as solemn testimony, and in many cases are receivable as original proof where the witness is not attainable. His oath on one occasion is as solemn and binding as on any other; and if his sworn declarations are inconsistent, they will, unless some good explanation is given, destroy the credit of the witness to' a greater or less extent. They are not like verbal conversations which may easily be perverted by treacherous memories, but stand without danger of change or misunderstanding through lapse of time. Where a witness has once been examined before a magistrate, the law presumes that the depositions contain all of his statements. It presumes further that those statements of witnesses were the only ground on which the prisoner was regarded as worthy of being charged as culpable, and put upon his trial for the offense alleged. They are required to be returned into the trial court for the express purpose of enabling the judge and jury to see whether the witnesses are consistent in their statements on the trial and [513]*513on. the examination, and thereby to determine how far they are entitled to credit.— Lambe’s Case, 2 Leach, Case No. 236; 2 Starkie Ev. 276, 279; 2 Phill. Ev. 238 (4th Am. Ed.); Rex v. Coventry, 7 C. & P. 668; Rex v. Grady, Id. 668. The deposition is presumptively the best evidence of all that the witness said before the justice; and to require him to be cross-examined upon the facts would lead to very strange results, first, by allowing secondary evidence in lieu of primary, and second, by enabling the witness, by admitting the statements propounded to him, to shut out •the depositions altogether. For the rule is clear that where a witness admits the statement alleged, no other proof of his having made it is allowable.

It seems a very useless ceremony to aslc a witness whether a deposition contains a statement or not, when he is at liberty, according to all of the authorities, to see the paper on which he is cross-examined, or to hear it read. It would require no great stretch of candor to admit what it would be useless to deny. And, inasmuch as the candor and consistency of a witness can usually be better tested by a comparison of all that he has said, than by selecting detached passages, the effect of such a mode of examination as is claimed by the prosecution would be to prevent, the jury from ever finding out the precise history given by the witness on the preliminary examination. No such imperfect method of comparison was ever designed.

On the contrary the deposition relied on to establish a contradiction by the witness is original evidence for the party against whom he is sworn, and should be read in the case as independent testimony. The only occasion for bringing it to the attention of the witness at all, is where the party impeaching him desires to follow up the production, and reading in evidence of the deposition by a further cross-examination concerning the discrepancies and their causes. It would be unfair to cross-examine until the jury are informed of the precise contents of the deposition, [514]*514and thus warned against assuming contradictions which do not really exist, and it would also- be unfair to the witness because he may have explanations which would not occur to him until his memory had been refreshed by hearing the paper read. But, except the case of Stephens v. The People, 19 N. Y.

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Bluebook (online)
16 Mich. 507, 1868 Mich. LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lightfoot-v-people-mich-1868.