State v. Eder

Citations

• 36 Wash. 482
• 78 P. 1023
• 1904 Wash. LEXIS 579

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law — Evidence of Other Crimes — Impeachment of Witness — Attempt to Correct Inadverent Statements of Wife. It is reversible error to permit the state, upon' cross-examination of the accused’s wife, to show that the accused had been convicted of another crime some years before, and it is not a sufficient excuse that the same was shown to correct the statement that she had married the accused about the year 1898, at which time he was in prison, the same being an inadvertence, she having married him in 1899.</p> <p>Same — Credibility of Witness — Impeachment of Wife of Accused by Fact of Former Conviction. It is not permissible, on the cross-examination of the accused’s wife, for the state to show that the accused had been convicted of another crime some years before, and before their marriage, in order to affect the credibility of the wife, since the fact tends directly to prejudice the accused, and only remotely, if at all, to discredit the witness.</p>