Case No. 14,734.

UNITED STATES v. CARRICO.

[5 Cranch, C. C. 112.]¹

Circuit Court, District of Columbia.

March Term, 1837.

WITNESS—COMPETENCY—WAGER UPON RESULT OF TRIAL.

1. A witness cannot be rejected in consequence of having been provoked to bet upon the event of the trial.

2. A wager upon the event of the trial is void in law.

Indictment [against Lucretia Carrico] for assaulting and beating a Mrs. Collard. Mary Hutchinson, a witness for the United States, upon cross-examination, admitted that one. James C Deneale, who had irritated the witness, and by whose advice the defendant had cowhided Mrs. Collard, told the witness, before the trial, that he would bet her five dollars that Mrs. Collard would be cast; and the witness agreed to the wager.

W. L. Brent, for defendant, objected, and contended that the testimony which the witness had given should be rejected.

THE COURT said, that the wager was void in law, and that the witness, not being, in 310fact, interested, could not be excluded; but that the circumstances attending the wager would go to the credit of the witness.

¹ [Reported by Hon. William Cranch, Chief Judge.]

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