EVIDENCE - FEDERAL PRACTICE - COMPETENCY OF WIFE TO TESTIFY IN DEFENSE OF HUSBAND IN CRIMINAL CASE

Authors

Abstract

The defendant, being tried in a federal district court on an indictment for conspiracy to violate the prohibition law, offered his wife as a witness in his behalf. The district court, following what it concluded to be the established rule of the federal courts, refused to allow her to testify. The circuit court of appeals affirmed this ruling without discussing the point. Certiorari was granted by the Supreme Court, limited to the question as to what law was applicable in determining the competency of the wife. Held, that the federal courts have the power to determine for themselves the evidenciary rules to be used in the trial of criminal cases, and that, in view of the greatly changed conditions under which trials are conducted, it is desirable that the ancient rule which prohibited a wife from testifying in defense of her husband be abrogated. It was error, therefore, to refuse to allow the wife to testify. Funk v. United States, 290 U.S. 371, 616, 54 Sup. Ct.91, 212 ( 1933).

Recommended Citation

EVIDENCE - FEDERAL PRACTICE - COMPETENCY OF WIFE TO TESTIFY IN DEFENSE OF HUSBAND IN CRIMINAL CASE, 33 Mich. L. Rev. 306 (1934).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol33/iss2/15