State v. Robinson

Citations

• 52 La. Ann. 616

Syllabus

<p>Syllabus.</p> <p>If, in a trial for felonious homicide, evidence of the dangerous and violent character of deceased, whether or not shown to have been known by defendant, be admissible to enable the jury to form its own conclusion as to which party to the difficulty was the aggressor-, a bill of exceptions taken to its exclusion by the court should show affirmatively the existence of the conditions necessary to warrant its admission.</p> <p>When two or more persons are jointly indicted for the commission of one and the same offense the confession of one made in the absence of the other implicating himself and others may be properly admitted in evidence, but it is to be received in evidence only against the party making it, and the jury should be so instructed.</p> <p>51. Though in a criminal case, where the prosecution calls a witness who proves hostile, the District Attorney may, in a proper case and in a proper manner, prove a contradictory statement made by him on a former occasion, it should not be received as substantive, independent and criminative evidence of the fact stated therein against the accused, but only as rem vpsam and to affect the credibility of the witness himself.</p> <p>4. The simple fact of itself that a witness on the stand (as a witness placed there by the District Attorney for the State) may have stated on the trial something additional to what he had stated in his testimony given before the coroner’s inquest, but not inconsistent therewith or contradictory thereto. does not warrant the prosecuting officer in seeking to discredit him. The witness may not have been questioned relatively to the point and may be perfectly trustworthy and truthful.</p> <p>5. Where the accused in his bill of exceptions makes a minute recital of the evidence claimed to have been received and of the facts claimed to have been established, the court should not dispose of the matter by simply declaring that the statements made were only the prisoner’s version of