Clark v. State

Decision Date30 May 1853
Citation4 Ind. 156
PartiesClark v. The State
CourtIndiana Supreme Court

ERROR to the Henry Circuit Court.

The judgment is reversed. Cause remanded.

J Rariden, for the plaintiff.

D. S Gooding, for the state.

OPINION

Roache J.

Indictment charging the plaintiff in error with fixing a fraudulent value on his property liable to taxation, under s. 90, c. 53, R. S. 1843.

Upon a trial by a jury, he was found guilty. Motions for a new trial, and in arrest of judgment, overruled, and judgment on the verdict.

On the trial, one Forkner was offered as a witness on behalf of the state, to prove the number and value of the articles of personal property owned by Clark on the 1st day of January, 1846.

The witness testified that at the time mentioned, he lived near Clark, and was then well acquainted with his personal property; that on a former trial of this indictment, at the spring term, 1847, he was sworn as a witness and testified fully on the subject, and that then his recollection was fresh and distinct as to the various articles of which his property consisted, and their value; that his testimony was, during said trial, reduced to writing by Martin L. Bundy, the attorney conducting the prosecution; that on the day after that trial, he procured Bundy to make out from the minutes thus taken of his testimony, an exact list of the several items of defendant's property, and their value, which list he then knew to be correct in all particulars, and was in exact accordance with the statements made by him at the trial on the previous day; that he knows the testimony then given by him was correct, and that the list was correctly made out from the evidence. The witness then proceeded to say "that, at this time he can only recollect the various kinds of property owned by said Clark on or about the 1st of January, 1846, but that he cannot recollect the quantity or number of each kind, or their value, and has no definite recollection on said points, and can only state them from said written memorandum, and has no recollection thereof at this time, as facts from the mind, but knows that the written memorandum is true from the circumstances above stated." Thereupon the Court permitted the memorandum to be read to the jury, as the evidence of the witness in the cause, in connection with his preceding statements.

A witness may be permitted to refresh his memory of facts, by referring to a written...

To continue reading

Request your trial
16 cases
  • Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Gregg
    • United States
    • Indiana Appellate Court
    • May 31, 1990
    ...had, at the moment, escaped his recollection, he can then testify to such facts as being within his own personal knowledge. Clark v. State (1853), 4 Ind. 156, 157 cited with approval in Buck v. State (1983), Ind., 453 N.E.2d 993, 1000. Cf. Parker v. State (1981), Ind.App., 424 N.E.2d 132, 1......
  • Carter v. State
    • United States
    • Indiana Appellate Court
    • November 25, 1980
    ...witness. Richardson v. State (1971), 255 Ind. 655, 266 N.E.2d 51; 2 Southern R. Co. v. State (1905), 165 Ind. 613, 75 N.E. 272; Clark v. State (1853), 4 Ind. 156. The foundational requirements for this rule were firmly established when the Supreme Court " A witness may be permitted to refre......
  • Buck v. State
    • United States
    • Indiana Supreme Court
    • September 28, 1983
    ...This Court established the foundational requirements for using a written memorandum to refresh a witness's recollection in Clark v. State, (1853) 4 Ind. 156, 157: "A witness may be permitted to refresh his memory of facts, by referring to a written memorandum, written either by himself or b......
  • Parker v. State
    • United States
    • Indiana Appellate Court
    • July 30, 1981
    ...for using a written memorandum to refresh a witness's recollection were established by the Indiana Supreme Court in Clark v. The State (1853), 4 Ind. 156, at 157: "A witness may be permitted to refresh his memory of facts, by referring to a written memorandum, written either by himself or b......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT