Eldridge v. State

• Decision Date: 17 May 1900
• Parties: ELDRIDGE v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

28 So. 580

126 Ala. 63

ELDRIDGE v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Alabama

May 17, 1900

Appeal from city court of Montgomery; A. D. Sayre, Judge.

Jim Eldridge was convicted of bigamy, and appeals. Affirmed.

On the trial of the case the state offered to introduce in evidence a marriage license which was issued by the judge of probate of Montgomery county, authorizing the celebration of the rites of matrimony between Jim Eldridge, colored, and Sarah Lewis, colored. This license was dated August 23, 1893, and to it there was attached the return of the preacher who performed the rites of marriage, which return was as follows "The above-named parties were married by me at Judge Falkner's place on the 23d day of August, 1893." This marriage license and the certificate of the officiating minister were duly certified as a true and correct copy of the marriage license issued to Jim Eldridge and Sarah Lewis and the return thereon, as appeared in a certain designated Book of Marriages in the office of the judge of probate of Montgomery county. The defendant objected to the introduction in evidence of the certified transcript of the marriage license and the certificate of the minister, upon the following grounds: (1) That it was an attempt by the state to prove the corpus delicti by the introduction of a mere paper. (2) By the introduction of such evidence the defendant was denied his constitutional right of being confronted by the witness against him. (3) There is no certificate of the preacher that Jim Eldridge and Sarah Lewis were married. The license and certificate of the preacher are not good evidence of the fact of a marriage in a criminal case. The court overruled this objection, and the defendant duly excepted. Thereupon the state offered to introduce in evidence a certified transcript of the marriage license issued by the judge of probate on February 21, 1899, authorizing the marriage of Jim Eldridge, colored, and Sylvia Williams colored, and also the certificate of the officiating minister. This certificate read as follows: "The above-named parties were married by me at Montgomery on the 22d day of February, 1899." The transcript was certified by the judge of probate of Montgomery county as being a true and correct copy of the marriage license issued to Jim Eldridge and Sylvia Williams, and the return thereon. The defendant objected to the introduction of this certified transcript upon the same grounds as were interposed to the introduction of the other license and its return. The court overruled this objection, and the defendant duly excepted. One John Berger, as a witness for the state, testified that without any inducement being offered and without any threat being made, the defendant told the witness that, in the early part of the year in which the trial was had, he had employed one John Robinson, Esq., a practicing attorney in Montgomery to secure a divorce from his wife for him, and had paid him for it, and that at the time of his marriage he thought that said divorce had been granted, as Mr. Robinson had told him that it would be all right. The state then proved by the minister whose name was signed to the return on the marriage license that he had, on February 22, 1899, married the defendant and Sylvia Williams. The defendant, as a witness in his own behalf, testified that he employed Mr. Robinson to secure a divorce from his wife for him; that he paid Mr Robinson $25 for that purpose, and Mr. Robinson told him that he could marry again; and that he did so. The state introduced John Robinson, Esq., as a witness in...