66 Miss. 196 | Miss. | 1888
delivered the opinion of the court.
The amendment of the affidavit in the circuit court, was warranted by § 1581 of the code, as amended by the act of 1886. Acts of 1886, 85.
It was error to allow Lawrence Garman to be contradicted in rebuttal, as to a collateral and irrelevant matter. A witness cannot be cross-examined as to any fact which is collateral and irrelevant to the issue, merely for the purpose of contradicting him by other evidence. And if a question is put to a witness which is collateral and irrelevant to the issue, his answer cannot be contradicted by the party who asked the question; but it is conclusive against him. 1 Greenleaf Ev., §§ 448, 449. The course pursued with this witness is not within any exception to the rule stated.
As to the appellant, Joe Garman, it was error to require him to leave the court-room with other witnesses during the progress of the trial. It was his right to be present and to see and hear what occurred in the trial, and to advise and assist his counsel, and 'the fact that he was a witness as well as a defendant, did not deprive him of this right. And it does not alter the case, that he was being tried for a misdemeanor instead of a felony, or that he might, by his own default or misconduct, have waived his right to be present.
In French v. Sale, 63 Miss. 386, after the plaintiff had closed, the defendant, who was also a witness in his own behalf, was
Judgment reversed and cause remanded.