Northampton County NcArchives Court.....Williams, Cornelius 1875
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Connie Ardrey N/a October 28, 2011, 9:42 pm

Source: Nc Reports
Written: 1875

J. C. L. Harris, Solicitor, ex parte

One who has been convicted of murder, and is under sentence of death, is a 
competent witness; and the Solicitor for the State is entitled to a habeas 
corpus to bring such condemned prisoner into Court, for the purpose of 
testifying before a grand jury.

Petition for a habeas corpus, heard before Watts, J., at Spring Term, 1875, of 
Northampton Superior Court.

The Solicitor filed the following affidavit:

* * * "that Cornelius Williams is now in the jail of this county, having been 
convicted at Fall Term, 1874, of this Curt, of the murder of one Samuel 
Presson; that said Williams appealed to the Supreme Court, and that the 
judgment sentence of death for the said murder, and that said Williams is a 
material witness for the State in a case of murder to be enquired into by the 
Grand Jury at this Term." * * 

Wherefore he prayed that the said Williams might be brought into Court to 
testify, &c.

His Honor, after deliberation, gave judgment refusing the prayer for petition. 
From this judgment the Solicitor appealed.

Harris, Solicitor, for the petition argued:
That the Constitution prescribes no disfranchisement as to witness. That the 
act of 1866 makes Williams a competent witness; and that the act of 1868, 
chap. 116, sec. 37, does not bind the State. 

NC Supreme Court Justice Bynum, J. - This case is governed by the decision of 
this Court in the State v. Adair, 68 NC Rep., 68, which is so directly in 
point, that his Honor must have overlooked it or he would have allowed the 
motion...(see case for further details of ruling)

There is error.
Per Curiam.
Judgment reversed.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/northampton/court/williams2058gwl.txt

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