General
THE STATE vs. THOMAS NEWPORT
4 Del. 5674 Harr. 567·Delaware Court of General Sessions·1845·DE
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Opinion
THE STATE vs. THOMAS NEWPORT.
The confession of a principal is not evidence against an accessory.
Indicted for feloniously,receiving stolen goods, knowing, &c., to . wit, a quantity of wool.
One Washington Brown had been indicted, tried and convicted on his own confession of stealing the wool, but sentence h$id not passed. His confessions were now offered in evidence against Newport.
Rogers.
—The confession of a principal is not evidence as against an accessory. The very case has been decided by all the judges in England, on an indictment for receiving stolen goods. (Ros. Evid. 49, 50.)
[MAJORITY — The Court]
The Court
rejected the evidence.
Verdict, not guilty.
[Note.—In the case of the State vs. James Webb in Kent, Oyer and Terminer, June term, 1828, the same point was ruled. Quere. Could not Brown have been examined? A person is not convicted so as to render him infamous until judgment. Greenl. Ev. 444.]