171 Wis. 306 | Wis. | 1920
Plaintiff in error, hereinafter called the defendant, assigns numerous errors relied upon for a reversal of the judgment of conviction. All have received careful consideration, but to treat them seriatim would unduly prolong this opinion and serve no purpose except to swell the surfeit of commonplace legal literature. But one assignment of error seems to be of sufficient importance to justify discussion.
Upon rebuttal, three witnesses testified to the bad reputation of defendant for chastity and morality in the community where he lived. Upon cross-examination each witness admitted that she hád heard no one discuss the subject of defendant’s reputation except the other two witnesses, so that their sole knowledge upon the subject was obtained from one another. When it appeared that their only knowledge of his reputation, in respect to which they testified, was such knowledge as had been acquired .from one another, a motion was made to strike out their evidence. This was denied at the time, but, before the case was argued to the jury and some sixteen hours after the testimony had been received, the court struck it out and instructed the jury to entirely disregard it. It is apparent that the evidence should have been promptly stricken and the jury admonished to disregard it; and the question is whether prejudicial error resulted from the delay of the court in so doing.
In Alsheimer v. State, 165 Wis. 646, 163 N. W. 255, in his opening statement to the jury, the district attorney improperly said that he would prove that the defendants had been convicted of other crimes upon previous occasions.
By the Court. — Judgment affirmed.