60 N.C. 126 | N.C. | 1863
There are very few questions in which there is a greater conflict of judicial decisions than in that whether the statement made on oath by a person while under examination as a witness before a coroner's inquest or an examining magistrate can afterwards be used as evidence against him upon an indictment for the same offense as that as to which he has been examined. In Roscoe's Crim. Ev., pp. 49 and 50, references to many of these conflicting cases may be found. Mr. Phillips, in the last edition of his valuable treatise on evidence, after referring to most of the cases on the subject, endeavored to draw a distinction between the case where the prisoner was in custody, or was under suspicion, and where he was examined against another party under a distinct charge (see 1 Phil. Ev., 404). Mr. Roscoe, in remarking upon the distinction, says that in none of the recent cases had it been adverted to as the ground of decision. He then closes his observations on the subject by the remark that "the ground on which a deposition, upon oath, by a prisoner, has been generally considered to be inadmissible, without reference to the circumstances under which it is made, is that, being upon oath, it cannot be looked upon as a voluntary statement, although it undoubtedly strengthens the objection to such a deposition that the party is in custody or under suspicion at the time."
In S. v. Broughton,
PER CURIAM. Venire de novo.
Cited: S. v. Wright,