Leader v. State

Citations

• 4 Tex. Ct. App. 162

Syllabus

<p>Libel—Evidence in Justification. — The gravamen of a libel charged against the accused consisted of defamatory matter accusing one B. of embezzlement, and denouncing him as a person of notoriously bad and infamous character. On the trial, the accused was not allowed to ask his witnesses whether they knew B.’s general character. Held, that, under article 643 of the Penal Code, the question should have been allowed as a legitimate introduction of proof showing it to be true that B. was a person of notoriously bad or infamous character. But if the accusation of embezzlement had been the only libelous matter charged, the question would not have been competent in so general a form.</p>