| 词汇 | Witness3 |
| 释义 | `1`Witness3 `2` "Legal Lexicon": Attorneys. They cannot be examined as witnesses as to confidential communications which they have received from their clients, made while the relation of attorney and client subsisted. Communications thus protected must have been made to him as instructions ne-cessary for conducting the cause, and not any extraneous or impertinent matter they must have been made to him in the character of a counsel and not as a friend merely they must have been made while the relation of counsel and client existed, and not after. An attorney may be examined as to the existence of a paper entrusted to him by his client, and as to the fact that it is in his possession, but he cannot be compelled to produce it, or disclose its date or contents. He may also be called to prove a collateral fact not entrusted to him by his client; as to prove. his client's handwriting. He is a competent witness for his client, although his judgment fee depends upon his success or he expects to receive a larger fee from his client if the latter succeeds. In Louisiana, the reverse has been decided. It is there held that an attorney cannot become a witness for his client in a cause in which he was employed, by renouncing his fee, and having his name struck off from the record, in that case. Confessors. In New York it has been held that a confessor could not be compelled to disclose secrets which he had received in auricular confession. Jurors. A juror is not competent to prove his own or the conduct of his fellow jurors to impeach a verdict they have rendered. And a judge in a cause which is on trial before him cannot be a witness, as he cannot decide on his own competency, nor on the weight of his own testimony, compared with that of another. Slaves. It is said that a slave could not be a witness at common law because of the unbounded influence his master had over him. By statutory provisions in the slave states, a slave is generally held incompetent in actions between white persons. In New York a free black man is competent to prove facts happening while he was a slave. A party to a negotiable instrument, is not allowed to give evidence to invalidate it. But the rule is confined to negotiable instruments. This rule does not appear to be very firmly established in England. In the state courts of some of the United States it has been adopted, and may now be considered to be law. The witness may however testify to subsequent facts, not tending to show that the instrument was originally invalid. When the witness has no religious principles to bind his conscience, the law rejects his testimony; but there is not such defect of religious principles, when the witness believes in the existence of a God, who will reward or punish in this world or that which is to come. Infamy is a disqualification while it remains. As to the number of witnesses, it is a general rule that one witness is sufficient to establish a fact, but to this there are exceptions, both in civil and criminal cases. In civil cases. The laws of perhaps all the states of the Union require two witnesses and some require even more, to prove the execution of a last will and testament devising lands. In criminal cages, there are several instances where two witnesses at least are required. The constitution of the United States, art. 3, provides that no person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. In cases of perjury there must evidently be two witnesses, or one witness, and such circumstances as have the effect of one witness; for if there be but one witness, then there is oath against oath, and therefore uncertainty. A witness may be compelled to attend court. In the first place a subpoena requiring his attendance must be served upon him personally, and on his neglect to attend, an attachment for contempt will be issued. --b-- |
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