Pennsylvania § 5913 Spouses as witnesses against each other

Pennsylvania Statutes

§ 5913 — Spouses as witnesses against each other

Pennsylvania § 5913

JurisdictionPennsylvania

Title 42JUDICIARY AND JUDICIAL PROCEDURE

PartPART VI

Ch. 59DEPOSITIONS AND WITNESSES

Subch.WITNESSES GENERALLY

This text of Pennsylvania § 5913 (Spouses as witnesses against each other) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5913 (2026).

Text

Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, in a criminal proceeding a person shall have the privilege, which he or she may waive, not to testify against his or her then lawful spouse except that there shall be no such privilege:

(1)in proceedings for desertion and maintenance;

(2)in any criminal proceeding against either for bodily injury or violence attempted, done or threatened upon the other, or upon the minor children of said husband and wife, or the minor children of either of them, or any minor child in their care or custody, or in the care or custody of either of them;

(3)applicable to proof of the fact of marriage, in support of a criminal charge of bigamy alleged to have been committed by or with the other; or

(4)in any criminal proceeding in which one of the charges

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Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, in a criminal proceeding a person shall have the privilege, which he or she may waive, not to testify against his or her then lawful spouse except that there shall be no such privilege:

(1) in proceedings for desertion and maintenance;

(2) in any criminal proceeding against either for bodily injury or violence attempted, done or threatened upon the other, or upon the minor children of said husband and wife, or the minor children of either of them, or any minor child in their care or custody, or in the care or custody of either of them;

(3) applicable to proof of the fact of marriage, in support of a criminal charge of bigamy alleged to have been committed by or with the other; or

(4) in any criminal proceeding in which one of the charges pending against the defendant includes murder, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse or rape.

Legislative History

(Apr. 28, 1978, P.L.202, No.53, eff. 60 days; June 29, 1989, P.L.69, No.16, eff. imd.) 1989 Amendment.Section 2 of Act 16 provided that Act 16 shall apply to all criminal cases pending on the effective date of Act 16.