State v. Hopper

Citations

• 114 La. 557
• 38 So. 452
• 1905 La. LEXIS 505

Syllabus

<p>CRIMINAL LAW — OPINION EVIDENCE — ACCOMPLICE EVIDENCE — CORROBORATION.</p> <p>1. To ask how the prisoner looked while in the presence of the dead body of his supposed victim is not to call for the opinion of the witness, but to interrogate him as to a fact. If, however, in answer to such a question, the witness, instead of describing minutely the appearance of the prisoner, gives an opinion as to his looks — for instance, that he looked scared— such opinion would not be objectionable. The opinion of ordinary witnesses is admissible on a great variety of subjects.</p> <p>2. A prisoner under arrest cannot create evidence in his favor; hence his having asked for a preliminary examination is not evidence.</p> <p>3. Opinion evidence is admissible on questions of identity, and is not secondary, but primary, evidence. Hence a witness may be asked whether certain shoes which are on the feet of a person in court correspond with those# which the .same person was wearing on a particular occasion. The evidence is not rendered inadmissible by the fact that the wearer of the shoes knows best whether or not they are the same shoes, and might be interrogated on the subject.</p> <p>4. While the jury may convict on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice, yet the judge should charge that they should only do so with great caution; and, in explaining what is meant by corroboration, he should make it clear that it must bear upon that part of the testimony of the accomplice which connects the prisoner with the crime.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>