69 Mass. 460 | Mass. | 1855
This indictment is against the defendant alone, and charges him with having received property stolen by Joseph Elisha and William Gigger, knowing it to have been stolen. It is not averred, nor was it necessary to aver or prove, (Rev. Sts. c. 126, § 24,) that they had been convicted of the theft. But it
We express no opinion concerning a case differing, in any particular, from this, but confine ourselves to the exact question presented by these exceptions. Our decision is this, and no more: The record of the conviction of a thief, on his plea of guilty to an indictment against him alone for stealing certain property, is not admissible in evidence to prove the theft, on the trial of the receiver of that property, upon an indictment against him alone, which does not aver that the thief has been con victed. ■ New trial granted.