State v. Jackson

Citations

• 9 Or. 457

Syllabus

<p>Witnesses — Competency of Children.</p> <p>There is no precise age within which children are excluded from giving-testimony. Their competency is to be determined not by their age, but by the degree of their understanding and knowledge.</p> <p>To enable them to testify, it is essential that they should have sufficient intelligence to observe and narrate, and possess a due sense of the nature and obligations of an oath.</p> <p>It is for the court to decide the question of their competency when they are offered as witnesses, and its decision cannot be reviewed, unless there is clear abuse of its discretion, or a violation of some legal prinple in admitting or rejecting such witnesses.</p> <p>And whenever in such case it is proposed by a bill of exceptions, to show that the conclusion reached by the court was an erroneous exercise of, or an abuse of, its discretion, it must contain all the evidence upon •which such conclusion was fountlcd, and unless this is made to appear in the bill of exceptions, either expressly or by necessary implication, the presumption of other and sufficient evidence to support the finding or decision of the court will be presumed bv the appellate court.</p>