Swan v. People

Citations

• 98 Ill. 610
• 1881 Ill. LEXIS 299

Syllabus

<p>1. Witness—credibility. A witness must be contradicted on a material point in his testimony to authorize the rejection of his evidence as being unworthy of belief on the ground that he has been contradicted; and to reject all of a witness’ testimony, on account of false statements, he must have knowingly and intentionally sworn falsely as to some material point in the case.</p> <p>2. Instruction—when great accuracy required. Where the evidence is conflicting and inharmonious, it is indispensable that the jury should be accurately instructed.</p> <p>3. Same—as to matters of fact., It is not proper to instruct the jury as to matters of fact, as, that there are matters about which the friends and relations “ would be most likely to be knowing,” or that a man is liable to be frightened and stunned by being accused of crime, etc., or to tell the jury to estimate the probabilities whether one accused was liable to make inaccurate statements under the circumstances.</p>