State v. Dalton

Citations

• 43 Wash. 278
• 86 P. 590
• 1906 Wash. LEXIS 691

Syllabus

<p>Appeal and Error — Record—Affidavits. Affidavits used on a motion for a new trial must be brought up by bill of exceptions or statement of facts, or they will be struck out.</p> <p>Criminal Law — Trial—Exclusion of Witnesses. The exclusion of witnesses from the court room rests within the discretion of the trial court, and is not a matter of right, although it should be granted in all proper cases.</p> <p>Same — Abuse of Discretion. It is not an abuse of discretion to refuse a request to exclude the witnesses from the court room in a trial for murder, when no reasons are assigned, and the request was directed principally against one witness, an officer whose presence may have been necessary to the prosecuting attorney.</p> <p>Criminal Law — Unwilling Witness. Upon a trial for murder, where an unwilling witness for the state refuses to answer questions, upon the defendant’s signal, it is not error for the trial court to direct him to look at the jury and stop looking at the defendant, and to attempt to make him testify, and to punish the witness for contempt in the presence of the jury, where nothing was said prejudicial to the defendant in passing sentence.</p> <p>Witnesses — Hostile Witness — Leading Questions. It is discretionary to allow leading questions to a hostile witness controlled by the other side.</p> <p>Same — Credibility—Inducements. Where a witness hostile to the state refused to testify, it is not error to refuse to allow the defendant to show that inducements to testify had been made to the witness, since that affects only his credibility.</p> <p>Criminal Law — Evidence—Confessions Including Other Crimes. Upon a trial for the murder of a police officer, evidence of confessions by the defendant are not inadmissible because of the fact that they included statements of other crimes, where the confession stated to the witness where he could find a kit of burglar’s tools used by the accused at the time of the murder, and which would certainly convict h