Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1877 — The Rights of Witnesses. [ARTICLE]

The Rights of Witnesses.

Both before and since the days of Mr. Sergeant Buzfuz, lawyers in court have, at least occasionally, asked witnesses impertinent and not pertinent questions; and especially when cross-examined, have these indispensable allies to the administration of justice seemed sometimes to possess no privileges which legal acumen and brow-beating considered worth respecting. The rights of witnesses at tbe present time fire fry'no arana either defined or secured; and many persons who sufler wrong in quiet rather than suffer long in the witness-box, or who know by smarting experience the misery of both conditions, will be pleased—perhaps even elated -to learn that a Mr. Bilton, a London lawyer, has been publicly rebuked for endeavoring to cast a stigma upon the reputation of a witness by asking him an impudent question. “’Have you ever been convicted of perjury?’’ inquired the lawyer.. “ Never,” warmly responded the witness “If there is not sufficient ground for it,” interposed tbe Judge, “ the question is a most improper one to put. Have you (turning to the witness) ever been charged with perjury?” “Never,” was the quick reply. “ I think,” resumed the Judge, with the faintest tinge of sarcasm in his tone, “ I think that an advocate should make some inquiry and have some proof before him before he puts such questions to a witness.” We think so, too. — N. Y. Evening Pott.