Viewing "A Lawyer's Story" (1869)."A Lawyer's Story" (1869).In March 1868, Minnesota became the ninth state to enact legislation permitting a defendant in a criminal case to testify under oath at his own trial. This law abolished an old common law rule of evidence that barred a criminal defendant from testifying under oath because he had an "interest" in the outcome. That self-interest, it was thought, would encourage him to commit perjury and hoodwink the jury into returning a verdict of "not guilty."
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