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Subject_1 WITNESS.
Same Parties
1753 ,Feb. 16 ,July 5 .
Case No.No. 36.
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In this trial of forgery one of the instrumentary witnesses dying during the trial, other witnesses were adduced to prove what he said of the matter on death-bed; and the defender objected to the competency, for that was but hearsay evidence. But the Court repelled the objection, and distinguished between the evidence of hearsay of an ordinary witness and of a person so connected with the crime, that the confession of an accomplice is a pregnant circumstance even where he is not or cannot be adduced a witness. That in a trial of murder evidence will be admitted of what the person killed said, and whom he charged. And in the trial of James M'Grigor for the rape of Jean Keay, her declaration was allowed to be read to the Jury.
The electronic version of the text was provided by the Scottish Council of Law Reporting