In the Scottish Courts
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835602000106 |
| Published date | 01 January 1956 |
| Date | 01 January 1956 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
In the Scottish Courts
THIEVES AND
RESETTERS-SOCII
CRIMINIS?
H.M.
Advocate v. Murdoch and others
(1955
SL.T.
(N.) 57)
WHE RE a witness adduced at a trial is a
socius
criminis it is,
of course, imperative
that
the trial judge should warn the
jury
that
his evidence should be weighed with special care.
Is such awarning necessary when the Crown, in a charge of
theft, seeks to rely
upon
the
evidence of persons
who
resetted
the stolen property?
Certain chests of tea,
part
of property stolen from a
warehouse, were brought to
the
house of a
Mr.
and
Mrs.
Lawson
and
kept there.
Mr.
Lawson, at least, knew
that
they
had been stolen.
Three
weeks later,
the
property having been
traced, the Lawsons were arrested
and
charged with theft.
This
charge was not proceeded with
but
instead certain men,
against whom the Lawsons made incriminating statements,
were charged with the theft and at their trial the Lawsons
were adduced as Crown witnesses.
The
trial judge gave no
special warning to
the
JUry and, in consequence, an appeal
against conviction was successful.
The
Crown submission at the hearing of
the
appeal-
that
the
Lawsons were not to be regarded as socii criminis
as the crime of which they were guilty (reset) was distinct
from the crime of theft
charged-was
rejected by a majority
of the High Court judges who heard the appeal.
Lord
Clyde
expressed some doubt as to the soundness of
the
decision
but
did not formally dissent.
Lord
Sorn, who gave the leading
opinion, made it clear
that
he could
not
accept
the
view
that
the thief
and
the resetter, though
"partners
in crime", are
not
socii criminis because they are not partners in
the
same
crime.
"This
view", he said,
"puts
too narrow ameaning on
the
term
socii criminis in the context of the rule we are
considering here.
The
crimes of reset
and
theft are peculiarly
related and the one is truly acontinuance of the other". In
the
case
under
review,
Lord
Sorn added, one of
the
main
6a
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